Courtesy of Pixabay.com
Process Over Outcome. It’s a winning behavior that is the foundation of nearly every sustained sales success story. First let’s look at the other side of the spectrum. We have all known the salesperson who constantly clamors for the close and for whom everything is about the deal. These Wheelers & Dealers usually emit tremendous energy and, for a while at least, are often the rock stars of their sales teams. Not surprisingly though, they are also often the first to burn out for no other reason than they fed off the adrenalin and payoff of the sale (which can be fleeting, not to mention exhausting) rather than relying on their sales process and the value of their offering.
Truly the best salespeople, with the longevity and commission checks to prove it, believe in what they do and the product or service they sell; and they believe in themselves. They are also the people who are willing to remove that “sales hat” at strategic intervals in order to focus on the self-discipline of doing the methodical and sometimes monotonous work behind the curtain – things like tracking the number of phone calls made, appointments scheduled, appointments held, deals won and deals lost. Smart salespeople block time on their calendars to proactively prospect, as they understand that deals and opportunities simply don’t appear magically; they recognize that they must do the groundwork and lay the grid in order to create and feed their pipeline to success.
Everyone in sales loves the thrill of the close, but it is those who commit to the mostly unsexy sales process who ultimately achieve lasting success.
By Blair Koch
