What Meteorologists Have in Common with Salespeople

If you reside in an area where it snows during the winter, you’ll love this analogy.  If you live where it is mild year round, maybe you’ll learn something about what it’s like to live in snow country!

Have you ever noticed how excited meteorologists get for:

• The first snowstorm of the season?
• The first B I G snowstorm of the year?
• The first storm that will produce everything except the kitchen sink (snow, ice, sleet, thunder, rain and wind)

After the meteorologists have hyped up those storms with non-stop 20-minute weather updates, details you don’t need to know, and all of the potential outcomes, things change – dramatically!  Here in Central Massachusetts, USA, we’ve already had our 3 firsts, with the last of them occurring yesterday.  Today, the morning meteorologist gave the 5-day forecast and she said:

Today will be mild with temperatures dropping throughout the day.  Tomorrow will be partly cloudy and colder, and then Friday we’ll have a plowable snow event.

Wow!  A plowable snow event.  No hype, no accumulation predictions, no mystery about the ever-moving rain/snow line, no warnings about treacherous travel, no details about the track of the storm and where it might go, just a “plowable snow event”.  The excitement and exhaustion from the previous 3 storms had surely numbed her senses.

How does this apply to your sales force?

How many presentations will your salespeople conduct until the excitement over the company’s capabilities and solutions fades?  You’ve heard about the importance of enthusiasm, right?  While you don’t want them to be enthusiastic during the steps of the sales process where they are uncovering issues, problems, compelling reasons to buy, commitment and qualification, you sure as hell want them to be passionate about how your solutions will solve problems.  Prospects interpret that passion as conviction, competence, expertise, longevity, and fit. If your salespeople tire of the story or leave parts of it out, as with today’s weather forecast, how could their prospects possibly get excited about doing business with your company?

Time to meet with the sales force again and pass along my latest tip.  Ho hum.