Good morning!
I asked a sales team, “Why aren’t you selling more?” It’s one of my favorite questions as it reveals what the sales rep believes his or her sales challenges to be. All of the answers were external. That is, there were too many other non-selling responsibilities that needed to be done. There weren’t enough quality leads coming in. They were too busy doing this or that to sell.
Next, I asked a follow-up question: “What is within your control to change?”
Silence.
In their eyes, I could see this was a question they hadn’t really considered. Slowly, answers came forth; solutions for sales growth they could achieve through a combination of skills improvement and increasing their sales productivity by making better choices during the day.
We all have our answers to that question, Why aren’t you selling more? There are absolutely outside factors and influences which slow us down or get in our way. While we cannot change those, we can control our own actions and that’s where you begin if your goal is to increase your sales.
If I stood in front of you with magic wand that could make anything happen, what would you wish for?
“I want better leads.” You come across great opportunities every day. Pay attention.
“I want people to respond to my voicemail messages.” Say something of enough value in your message that it stirs people to action.
“I want more appointments.” Create and engage a prospecting process with diligence and pleasant persistency.
I am not suggesting you can make all of your sales challenges disappear, but I am telling you that you have more control to make changes than you think you do. Should your company generate leads for you? Absolutely. Should multiple voicemail messages be returned? If my mother had anything to do with it, yes! Is there a way to get more appointments? I teach it every day. You cannot change the sales world, but you can change yours by taking action.
