Today’s question for you is simple but costly if you are not honest with yourself.
The question is … Are you working a process… or chasing randomness?
What follows is the recording and transcript of a Finding Business podcast episode. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
This question is for sales professionals, team leaders, and VPs of sales who are frustrated. You — or your team — are working hard. You’ve got talent. You know your market. You’ve got wins that prove you can sell at a high level.
But lately, it’s not adding up. You’re putting in the hours, you’re hustling, but the scoreboard doesn’t reflect your effort or skill. And worse — you see accounts that should have been yours… landing with competitors. Deals that seemed like a lock evaporate. Too many deals are in the pipeline too long, And you’re left wondering: “What’s going on? We’re better than this.”
Let me give you a visual to work with. I want you to imagine a slider.
On one end is Working a system — a structured, deliberate, proven, tweaked sales process you can execute over and over and it produces results.
On the other end is Chasing randomness — a scattered, reactive, constantly-changing, activity is king approach that makes results unpredictable and too often disappointing.
In between those two extremes are all the shades of gray. And here’s the truth: most salespeople, and most sales teams, are somewhere in that middle zone. Hopefully, closer to the “working a process” side than the “chasing randomness” side.
But here’s my bet — and it’s based on decades of working with teams in the field:
If you’re capable, and you’re working hard, and you’re still not winning your fair share of sales… you are almost certainly much closer to the chasing randomness side than you might be comfortable admitting to yourself.
Now, you may not see it that way. You may think, “We’re just being flexible. We are keeping it natural. We’re trying new ideas.” And yes, flexibility is good. Testing new ideas is good.
But here’s the danger: when you’re constantly trying new tactics — jumping from one outreach method to another, tweaking your messaging every week, switching up call approaches — yet your actual business situation never seems to improve much… what you’re really doing is running in circles. You’re reacting, not executing. And that’s chasing randomness.
Why is that a problem? Because typically means your sales foundation is weak — you don’t have a clear, polished, reliable process — no matter how hard you work or how many “good ideas” you try, they won’t stick. You’re basically building on sand. You are playing whack a tactic in a hamster wheel going nowhere.
Let’s talk about what it looks like to be on the working a process end of the slider.
When you’re working a process, you’ve identified and polished the key elements and process steps that drive consistent wins. You:
- Choose high-probability prospects, not just anyone with a pulse and a budget or those you deem good enough.
- Execute your outreach plan from start to finish without skipping steps.
- Deliver messaging that’s tested, refined, and resonates with your target audience and you stick to what works.
- Conduct discovery calls that actually uncover decision criteria and create urgency and give you insight into buying motivations.
- Follow up with the right cadence, the right message, and the right persistence.
When you do those things well and consistently, new business is the natural outcome. You can rely on it.
Now contrast that with chasing randomness.
This is where you:
- Target far too broadly instead of focusing on high-probability prospects. Your investing way too time with average, less than average and never will buy prospects while grade A high probability prospects that could easily be identified go untouched. Don’t get me going on that.
- Constantly change outreach methods and scripting before giving them time to work.
- Try “clever” messaging and new ideas too often in the hopes of finding one thing that will turn things around. It is never one thing that turns things around.
- Treat discovery calls like informal chats with rapport as the goal instead of strategic conversations.
- Follow up inconsistently — and give up too soon.
And here’s the kicker: the same salesperson, with the same talent and the same work ethic, will produce wildly different results depending on which end of that slider they’re on.
If you’re closer to the “working a process” side — you’re in what I call the high results zone. That’s where effort translates into wins.
If you’re closer to “chasing randomness” — you’re in the low results zone. That’s where talented people burn themselves out and still fall short. In the low results zone, you certainly will get some good wins, but too many are not good fits or the margins are not what you hoped. In the low results zone the best sales job you do is convincing yourself that you are on the right track. If your results have been too low for too long, you need to stop believing your own bullshit.
So ask yourself — and be brutally honest here — where’s your slider? And where does it need to be for you to start winning the deals that should be yours?
Here’s the good news: moving the slider toward the “working a process” side isn’t about working harder. It’s about tightening the fundamentals and sticking to them.
That means:
- Define your high-probability target profile.
- Build an outreach plan and stick with it long enough to find out what works.
- Commit to consistent, high-quality discovery calls.
- Follow up with discipline, in accordance with your system. .
And then — and this is key — keep refining each element until it’s sharp. That’s how you move out of randomness and closer to a predictable, repeatable win pattern.
So my challenge to you this week: evaluate your current approach through the lens of that slider. Be honest with yoursef, are you truly working a polished process? Or are you, in reality, chasing randomness with bursts of activity that feel like progress and give you hope, but over time are not moving you forward?
Remember — sales talent and sales effort are wasted without process. The right process turns the same effort into a lot more wins.
If this made sense and you could use some help sorting through options to improve, check out my service offerings at Scott Channell dot com. Thats scott Channell with two t’s, two n’s and two l’s dot com.
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