One Bold Action Can Immediately Boost Appointment Setting Results and Outside Sales Commissions.
Whatever you do in sales, you do at the expense of something else.
When you choose to prospect a group of companies, you choose to call them rather than call others.
When you choose to continue to call upon an account without progress to close that sale, you choose to continue those efforts, rather than others.
When sales are slow or slowing, you must choose actions that will lead to more sales.
Will you choose wisely, or hasten your demise?
A common key to quick outside sales turn-around
The most profitable businesses make a habit of saying bye-bye to their least profitable accounts every year. Creates more time to service the more profitable and time to find others like them.
When I was actively B2b appointment setting and things were stagnant the root cause typically was that I was spending too much time with those that would never agree to meet. (Genius, right?) So I intentionally threw down the stairs call groups that were wasting my time. The callbacks that kept asking for call backs. Bye-bye. All those that whispered in my ear things I loved to hear yet would not keep their commitments or call back? Bye bye. All those in which the sales prospecting process had veered too far from what the historically successful call and future closed account process looked like? Bye bye.
Clearing the decks of appointment setting garbage creates an immediate turn-around
Remember that words of that wise sales coach, Scott Channell. “Everything you do in sales you do at the expense of something else.”
When you choose to continue to call back and call back a group of records with no progress because they said the right things and “seemed interested,” you choose to do that rather than call a different group of records that you know (or should know) contain some sales.
When an outside sales representative chooses to continue to call on companies that say sweet things, but rarely close sales, a choice is being made to call the same old same olds again rather than others more likely to close a sale.
One of the hardest thing for an outside sales person to do is FACE FACTS. Reality is a bitch.
If you want to break away from the great unwashed, or at least be at the front of the bread line, you need to separate reality from what you want to believe. And reality is that when you are working hard and sales are not where you want them, only a wholesale reshuffling of the deck is going to change things.
Want better sales lead generation, outside sales results? A tip that always propels you forward…
Ruthlessly cast aside your bottom dwellers, your dredges, your low probability, low value prospecting and sales targets. Bye bye. That creates room for more productive activity.
If you were to say “Adios” to the bottom 10% of your sale and prospecting pile, you don’t give yourself a 10% boost in productivity. You give yourself a 30%, 40%, 50% boost in productivity. Know why?
Because those bottom dwelling, call me back, whisper sweet things in your ear, never meet, never close a sale prospects are sucking the life out of you. Your enthusiasm, your motivation, your sales abilities, are all being sucked out of you by the dredges in your sales life.
The phrase that predicts appointment setting doom and lowers outside sales commissions
“I don’t want to miss anyone.” The black phrase of sales death. The words that portend great suffering in sales land. “I don’t want to miss anyone.”
Why do people choose to call and call and call groups of companies that rarely meet and when they do buy little, when there are easily identified groups of individuals and companies to call that fit a profile that historically buys in greater frequency and larger amounts? They “don’t want to miss anyone.
Why do outside sales people keep visiting companies that never buy yet keep stringing them along with great expectations around the corner? They “don’t want to miss anyone.”
Why even bother with learning great appointment setting techniques or outside sales tips if you choose to invest your time with low probability groups?
Here is the point. Everything you do, you do at the expense of something else.
Do you know what the other appointment setting call options are? Do you know their relative worth compared to where you are choosing to spend your time.
There is what you want, what you believe and reality. You need to be able to recognize reality to make the best choices.
You might find a golden needle in the sales haystack, but if you could spend the same amount of time and walk away with a bucket of gold, why keep searching for the needle?
Too many outside sales people choose to search for the needle (I don’t want to miss anyone.) Those best at sales closing never have as a goal to “not miss anyone.” The goal is to make the most sales and greatest income for your time.
Get a grip on reality and what your range of choices are in terms of where you choose to spend your time.
Choose to invest more time in better places by getting rid of your bottom dwellers. ‘Hey Mr. and Ms. call me back again 20 times, be careful flying down the stairs.” “Hey all you sales call and proposal teasers, waste someone else’s time. Bye bye.
Major increases in sales require bold decisions. Face reality. Take out the garbage. Make room for fresh leads and more likely to close sale prospects. Ka-ching.
