The Seven Principles of Sales Success
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These seven "principles" affecting sales productivity have been condensed from global survey results on salespeople across a variety of industries and cultures. Regardless of what business or environment one is in, the applicability of these ideas are universal.
1. New prospects are the lifeblood of a business.
2. Selling is a "Numbers Game." The more you contact, the more you close.
3. Without new prospects, all presenting and closing skills are worthless.
4. Getting sales people to prospect, rather than showing them how to prospect, is sales management's greatest challenge.
5. Eighty percent of new sales people, who terminate in Year 1, do so due to lack of prospecting activity.
6. Forty percent of veteran sales people experience one or more episodes of Call Reluctance severe enough to threaten their sales careers.
7. Assessment of existing willingness or reluctance to prospect is the starting point in improving sales productivity.
Aside from the issue of "fit" -- which has to do with whether or not a person is suited for a sales career in the first place -- prospecting is the most important behavioral variable that affects success in sales. However, prospecting is not about the "how to." My own experience in working with hundreds of successful and not-so-successful producers boils down to this simple truth: Prospecting is 80% motivation and 20% skill. Converting (i.e., presenting and closing) is 80% skill and 20% motivation. Conscious or unconscious resistance to prospecting for new business is a complex behavior that has many underlying roots.
In numerous research studies over the last two decades, psychologists studying successful sales behaviors have learned that skills and knowledge are the easier elements to identify and develop. Though essential for peak performance, they are by themselves not sufficient for breakthrough results. Skills and knowledge are the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak. The unseen structure below the waterline is more difficult to identify and develop. They are: (a) self-image, (b) traits, and (c) motives. These "submerged" attributes are actually the underlying characteristics that lead to longer-term success.
In our consulting and sales coaching practice, we generally acknowledge two key (interrelated) modes that govern sales success. The first variable is simply a person's "internal wiring." This is the "Strengths Profile" that characterizes how a person acts within a work/professional context. The second centers on prospecting behavior, which is equally identifiable and measurable. Prospecting reluctance can be reduced to three components: thoughts, feelings, and actions. Actions are generally accompanied by thoughts and feelings, which are in turn learned and/or genetically predisposed. For the most part, call reluctance usually involves learned negative emotions like fear. The good news is that it can also be unlearned and corrected -- some types easier than others to "cure."
These two "bookend" modes, Strengths and Sales Call Reluctance, provide a framework (i.e., the chassis) for selecting, developing and training sustainable and successful sales performance.
What are the roots of "sub-optimal prospecting" aka Sales Call Reluctance?
Psychologists studying successful sales performance have learned that skills and knowledge are the easier elements to identify and develop. Though necessary for top performance, they are by themselves not sufficient for breakthrough results. Skills and knowledge are the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak. The unseen structure below the waterline is more difficult to identify and develop. They are (a) self-image, (b) traits, and (c) motives. These "submerged" attributes are actually the underlying characteristics that lead to longer-term success.
While most people have a predisposition to one or more forms of prospecting reluctance, this does not mean that they are call reluctant. Sales call reluctance (SCR) is an "aggregation of emotion-based escape and avoidance behaviors particularly associated with the act of initiating first social contact." This concept was developed by Dudley and Goodson in the 1970's. They can be differentiated from broader concepts like social anxiety by the type, degree, onset and limited specific nature of the symptoms. Though environments differ significantly, success in sales invariably requires generating new business, translating into increased revenue.
Contact initiation with prospective buyers (and, in our business, professional referrals) is considered a core competency. Failure to prospect consistently and effectively for new business is the most cited reason for poor sales productivity. Studies linking call reluctance and outcome measures such as commission dollars have shown that contact initiation with prospective buyers, or lack thereof, can distinguish high and low sales producers with up to 73% accuracy. Other factors become equally critical, if not more important, once first contact is made. However, initiating contact with prospective buyers must occur - consistently - before sales can be made. This fact remains regardless of product sold, sales training provided, production incentives, sales support, or even market conditions. All of the above factors can be present, but if there is a call reluctance issue sales success will not be sustainable. In the early days of the reverse mortgage business, prospecting was not the limiting constraint. There was a lot of low hanging fruit, and it was relatively easy to "get to the kitchen table." Most successful people differentiated themselves with their kitchen table skills. Nowadays, the tide has turned. People who have an ingrained disciplined system that allows strong, consistent and ethically appropriate prospecting will survive the tough times ahead. Any effective training program to improve sales productivity begins with an accurate diagnosis. In our coaching interventions, we start with a much more comprehensive on-line assessment, which then becomes the blueprint for improving the skills and behavioral competencies around successful prospecting. Without effective identification and valid/reliable assessment, effective counter-measures cannot be introduced. Though sales call reluctance is a "normal" phenomenon present even in the best producers, research has shown that it is the single most important variable (i.e., the proverbial "weak link") in determining whether you are earning what you truly deserve.
