Most sales gurus will tell you to call your A prospects first. After all, they're the ones who are most likely to buy -- and you'll be closing orders before you know it. Plus, you're not wasting your precious prospecting time with low-priority opportunities.
This not meant to be a political statement. It is simply commentary about what a candidate did - and what we, as sellers, can learn from it.
When Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the presidential race, he immediately soared to a front-runner status. But, it didn't last long due to his performance during the Republican debates.
For those of you who don't follow American politics, during the recent debates Perry stated that he'd eliminate three federal departments. When asked which ones, his mind went blank. He came up with two, but the third eluded him. For 55 seconds, he wracked his brain, babbled and even looked to his colleagues for a little help. (Check it out on YouTube.)
Sometimes a change in perspective changes everything. Take this morning for example. Before the day even started, I felt overwhelmed with a never-ending To Do list. But rather than dig right into it, I putzed. I played games. I called a friend. I checked email. I read the news online. I complained to myself. I rechecked email.
Then it dawned on me ... wrong approach.
When you're out on a safari, zebras are everywhere. They're grazing with the giraffes, kibitzing with the kudus and wandering with the warthogs. And, because they're so "Africa," they were one of the highlights of my trip.
On the second day of our safari, our guide posed this question when we saw a herd: "So why do zebras have stripes?"
It's a weekend afternoon and I'm working on a post for my blog. I'd wanted to get it done during the week, but you know how things go. Before I knew it, I stumbled onto this YouTube video by Piers Steel, author of The Procrastination Equation.
There's nothing I like better than engaging prospects when they're NOT thinking of making any changes from the status quo.
Have you ever felt that what you're selling is just like what your competitors offer? Well, if you think that, imagine how your prospects feel. They get multiple calls every day from sellers who are all saying the same thing.
Crazy busy buyers don't want to waste one iota of their precious time with these sales clones. Instead, they want to work with people who:
When I hung up the phone, I was in a state of shock. I'd just agreed to do something that was vital to my business growth, yet totally unreasonable to accomplish in only 90 days. To top it off - I had no extra time in my already over-flowing schedule.
It all started when leadership coach Caitlin Miller invited me to participate in the Breakthrough Game. When it came time to identify my goal, she insisted that I select one that was the "other side of possible."
So, with a great deal of angst and a bit of excitement, I committed to increase my database by 50% in three months.
Was I crazy? Perhaps. But trying to pull this off in such a short timeframe was a challenge I couldn't resist.
The Failure of Incrementalism
Most of us are used to dealing with incremental goals. Our quota goes up 15% each year. We decide that we'd like to earn 10% more money. We'd want to increase our closing ratio by 5%.
These small increases keep us thinking and acting small. We commit to making one extra call each day. We focus on working harder. Perhaps we even think about working smarter.
But the reality of it is, incremental goals feel like a burden. They don't inspire us to greater heights. Mostly, they just wear us down as we face a never-ending cycle of doing more, more, more.
The Real Secret to Success
When we set unreachable goals that require us to stretch beyond what we think we're capable of achieving, we're forced to consider new options.
Take my situation: It took me seven years to build by database to its current size. Now I needed to increase it by 50% in a totally unrealistic timeframe. Clearly, my normal modus operandi wouldn't work.
New strategies were needed - ones that I'd never considered before. I had to think differently about this challenge.
I started by asking new questions:
I was recently asked, "If you were mentoring a new salesperson, what would be your top five sales tips and how did you learn those?"
It started exactly 12 months ago, right after SNAP Selling came out. At first I didn't recognize the symptoms, but in retrospect, they were there. I was crazy-busy, running from one "must do" activity to the next. My inbox overflowed. I was constantly online, answering emails, tweeting, blogging, whatever.