Election Day – Like Decision Making Day for a Sales Opportunity?

November 2 is Election Day in the USA when the candidates, along with the rest of us, learn who the big winners will be.  The winner benefits from the work initiated 18 months ago, culminating in a frantic  last minute push to win votes.  The decision that voters make is the result of TV ads, endorsements, testimonials, media attention and most importantly, one-on-one visits between candidates and voters.

Interestingly, this is very similar to the sales process at a large corporation.  An 18-month sales cycle, lots of one-on-one meetings, many group presentations, a frantic, last-minute push and a result based more on the work over the 18 months than anything that happened on decision-making day.

Politicians get elected one vote at a time.  Salespeople win sales one prospect at a time.  The problem is that too many salespeople take shortcuts and attempt to sell prospects in groups.  While it is possible to make a great group presentation, that is not where the selling actually takes place.  Selling takes place one-on-one, and much earlier in the sales process.  The presentation, and still later, the proposal, are simply a formality that leads to getting the business when the selling that was conducted earlier was effective.