- April 2, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
People are easily confused. Take selling for example.
If I state that selling is difficult, the top 26% of your salespeople will agree.They are very aware of their sales process, as well as the importance of following it and achieving the milestones that must be accomplished along the way. This requires discipline, consistency, superior skills, and strong DNA. For top performers, the process of selling is difficult but because they are disciplined about staying true to the sales process, their outcomes are easily achieved.
On the other hand, the bottom 74% (the rest) of all salespeople would disagree with my claim and might even suggest that selling is easy. And it is easy if they aren’t concerned with following a challenging sales process, meeting milestones, or achieving desired outcomes. By doing what most salespeople do – making friends, presenting, proposing and hoping – their lack of adherence to a sales process causes them to believe that selling is easy while it makes achieving the desired outcomes quite difficult.
And that’s the confusing part. Difficult selling, with its challenges, gives way to easy-to-achieve outcomes. Easy selling, while avoiding challenges, causes difficult-to-achieve outcomes. See my definitions below…
Difficult selling:
- Getting to the right people,
- Overcoming resistance,
- Differentiating yourself and company from the competition,
- Building a case,
- Selling value,
- Doing what it takes to get business closed .
Easy selling:
- Getting to the wrong people,
- Presenting,
- Selling on price,
- Sending proposals and quotes
- Chasing prospects that don’t respond.
