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The Sales Clinic: Are Your Reps Lucky?
April 29, 2008
Often, salespeople put their success—or lack of it—down to sheer "luck." But just how much of their achievements should be put down to luck alone, and how much to skill and attempt? Are some salespeople just born lucky?
By Andy Preston
I remember when golfer Gary Player was accused of being "lucky," he said, "The harder I practice, the luckier I get."
Let's face it … your reps are going to get lucky in sales occasionally. You've probably experienced the same sort of thing—you happen to call on a prospect when they've got a problem with their current supplier or they're looking to change. You know reps can sometimes pick up the business just by being in the right place at the right time.
But let me ask you a question: Would you—or your reps—have picked up that business if you'd been playing with e-mail? Or tidying your desk for the seventh time? Or outside having a cigarette instead of making the phone call? (yes, you know who they are!) Of course not.
So, at some level, the more effort salespeople put in, the "luckier" they seem to be. In sales, effort translates into "activity"—the number of phone calls, appointments, etc. An equation develops: more phone calls equals "luckier" reps. Logically it stands to reason, doesn't it?
However, you'd be astounded to learn how many salespeople there are whose activity level is below where it should be! Especially when the most dreaded of all sales things happens—the sales slump.
Dealing With the "Slump"
What happens to most salespeople when they hit the dreaded sales slump? They start to feel sorry for themselves and think, "Nothing I can do will work," and their activity levels start to drop.
The worst thing to do in a sales slump is to let activity levels drop. If activity levels drop, then your reps' chances of being "lucky" decrease massively—and so do your chances of pulling yourselves out. The best thing to do in a sales slump is to increase your team's activity. Giving everyone more chances to strike "lucky" will at least give you a "selling" chance.
"Some Salespeople Are Just Born Lucky"
That phrase is a load of rubbish, yet I've heard it time and time again when referring to top salespeople. It never ceases to amaze me how many underperforming salespeople blame their poor performance on bad luck—and therefore the guys who are really bringing the money in are just lucky.
Really? It's just down to luck? Nothing to do with the fact that they're in the office before the underperformers, leave later, make more calls and appointments, listen to customers, pick up on buying signals and stay motivated to bring in more business?
Of course they can't do all that on top of what the underperformers do, so here are a few things they do less of: Drink less coffee, talk less, eat less, smoke less, get distracted less, play with e-mail less, procrastinate less, make excuses less and spend less time whining to everyone else about "how bad things are." (Not that anyone on your team has ever fallen foul of anything in this paragraph, have they?
Stop Blaming Other Things
The same salespeople who think they're just "unlucky" are the same ones who are quick to blame anything—or anyone—other than themselves for their slump. Their creativity is limitless! I've heard them blame their region, their customers, their industry, the economy, their company and even the weather!
Meanwhile the same things are happening to the top salespeople and they're just getting on with it. There are going to be things in sales that you can't do anything about, so why whine about them? Make sure your team uses their energy to focus on things they can control and do something about. How about something that will have a positive impact on sales figures?
Andy Preston is a leading authority on sales and sales management, and an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management. You can see and hear more about Andy at www.andy-preston.com and his sales training company at www.outstanding-results.co.uk.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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