Sell with a backbone, not a wishbone.

Whether you are winning at sales, stuck at average, or falling far short of your goals, who is always at the scene of the crime?

You are. To improve, ask yourself this question: Am I selling with a backbone or a wishbone? A 3rd bone, your jawbone, may be required to move up the performance scale.

If you are a top performer or moving steadily on your way to be a top performer, you are most likely selling with backbone.

Those that sell with backbone:

• • • Work a solid plan, which arises from experience, expertise, proven methods, or science.
    • Persist. They hang tough with their plan and keep going when it gets rough as they learn and improve execution of their plan.
    • Are confident they have the right approach. They are not distracted or tempted by charlatans preying on their insecurities, promising easy quick results without a time or money investment. They have enough of those T-shirts and have the confidence to stick with their choices.
    • Strong pillars. Every system has component parts that should work together and strengthen each other. Each pillar of your future sales success should be rock solid. You have clearly defined and prioritized prospect tiers and how to reach them. You have great messaging that communicates value and credibility. Your tech is properly setup to leverage your time for results. You are selling from strength with rock solid pillars.

  If you feel that you are capable but can’t figure out why you are not selling to your abilities, it could be that you are selling with a wishbone, not a backbone.

Those that sell with a wishbone:

• Work a plan, but that plan is based on weak thinking. Every popular new strategy of the month, every tale of quick results from doing just one thing, every anecdote about a different way of doing something causes your plan to change day-to-day, week-to-week.
• Give up too easily. If something doesn’t work right away instead of practicing to improve or giving a good strategy time to work, it is abandoned, and the next sales lottery ticket is scratched.
• Lack confidence in their system or approach. They are distracted or tempted by every “good idea,” new hack or shortcut. As a result, they never dig-in to perfect skills or improve a process, as no matter what they are doing, something else seems like it might be better or easier. Their effort is a mile wide and an inch deep.
• Sales pillars are cracked and crumbling. Rather than target your top tier prospects, you cast your net too wide and kneecap your efforts before you even start. Your prospect targeting pillar has collapsed. You don’t want to sound salesy, so when you do get to talk to a decent prospect, you wing it. What you say sounds pretty much like what everyone else says. Your messaging lacks specifics about results, credibility, and benefits. Your messaging pillar is weak and crumbling for no good reason. Your CRM is not setup properly (or heaven forbid you work off paper or spreadsheets) and you waste bundles of time and interact with far fewer prospects. Your tech stack pillar is crumbling.

When important components of your sales system are missing, crumbling, or collapsed, you are selling with a wishbone, not a backbone. You may not think you are, but that is your reality. When your sales pillars are weak and crumbling, you are relying more on wishful thinking for sales success than a solid plan properly executed.

If you need to strengthen your pillars.
If you need to sell with more backbone and less wishbone, use your jawbone.
Ask for help.
Ask questions.
Strengthen your sales pillars.
Experience more sales success.