According to Heraclitus, "Everything changes and nothing stands still." Given what the world looked like, 2,500 years ago and what it looks like today, maybe he was right. (There was another interesting quote behind that link. "Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character." Maybe another article.) A couple of thousand years later, Henry Ford said, "If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got," and Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.".
So, what's my point?
A few minutes ago, this article hit my inbox. It claims that the #1 obstacle to closing is competing against a lower cost provider. That's BULL! How many luxury cars are bought every day? Is your house the cheapest you could find, or did you look at neighborhood, schools, # of bathrooms? If you read the article, you'll learn that it's quoting the results of a survey. In other words, this is the belief that's in salespeople's heads. I suggest that the #1 obstacle to closing is that salespeople are causing it. They're using outdated methods of attracting, engaging and nurturing prospects. Then, they're using closing techniques that have been around for centuries that actually cause objections and negotiation.
Look around. More people have access to cell phones than toilets. Two thirds of Americans have smart phones. 41% of American households don't have a landline. How many pieces of junk mail did you get today? How many did you read? Yesterday, I received a message from a 2nd level connection on LinkedIn that was a video sales pitch about him. I watched 10 seconds. Deleted it and notified LinkedIn that it was spam sent by a spammer.
I talked to a guy last week that's trying to save his business. He diligently made 30 cold calls every day for a month. Nobody took or returned his calls. I talked to a marketing agency owner a while back that had just lost his biggest, happiest client because the agency was generating leads but they weren't converting to customers. I looked at a Hubspot portal recently and saw that 80% of the contacts in the portal had been imported and had not 'opted in'. So, only 20% actually consciously made the decision that this website offered value that they wanted. Seriously? Is that Inbound or a spam list?
Ask yourself these questions.
Do I practice what I preach?
Do I know who needs me to do what?
Do I find my prospects or do they find me?
Is the way I attract my prospects aligned with the way they buy from me?
Are people glad when they hear my voice or are they trying to figure out how to get rid of me?
Am I...
- out-of-date, closed-minded and stuck?
- open-minded and looking for the right solution?
- chasing every bright shiny object, silver bullet that I see?