Sales Traditions and Rituals – They’re Not Just for December

For some salespeople, selling is as caked in tradition and ritual as any religious ceremony.  To get a sense of this, consider the many inside sales roles, demo-centric salespeople, and low-level, in-home salespeople.   Many inside salespeople repeatedly read from the same script.  Most demo-centric salespeople must cover all of the features and benefits.  And many in-home salespeople perform a mini-show on every sales call.

I have several rituals that I can share with you below.  I always:

  • visit their website to get a sense for what they do,
  • prepare to take lots of notes,
  • visualize the outcome,
  • guide them through a conversation that they’ve never had with anyone before,
  • hit the milestones of our sales process, and
  • discuss and agree to next steps.

December is also the time of year when companies and salespeople send cards, pretzels, brownies, cookies, popcorn, wine, champagne, and other gifts.  These actions are very kind and generous, but not unexpected.  A nice note, card or gift, at a time of year when it’s not expected, can differentiate you and your company even more!

Along with the holiday traditions celebrated by you, your family and friends, my Blog has three traditions in December:

  1. I ask readers to vote for their favorite article from the past 12 months (coming next week).
  2. I am honored to have won one or more of  the annual Top Sales & Marketing Awards since the event’s inception several years ago.  This year I was nominated for 3 awards and Objective Management Group was nominated for 1 award.
  3. I always repost this very popular article from several Decembers ago, Only 11% of Salespeople Do This at the End of a Call.  There are 3 great lessons in this article that are still true today.