My alternative title was "You can't make this stuff up!"
I had a conversation with this guy on Monday. He reminded me of this guy. I've typically worked with two types of salespeople. Those that are doing OK, but want more.
- 1st child is due in a month and spouse is considering not returning to work. How to replace that income?
- Proposed $1,7 million last year. Closed $700K. How to get the other million?
- How to get from $3,500/month to $80K/month in a year?
The others are like the two clients that I referenced. Sometimes hit quota. Sometimes not. Great month. Bad month. Peaks and valleys. Looking to gain traction to be a consistent high performer, but never quite getting ahead. There's a lot of that around this year.
If you want to talk about 2020 and you, start here.
I recently had a rep say that he needed $12,400 sold in two weeks to get promoted. We reviewed his pipeline and he had 3 close-able opportunities that totaled around $30K. I suggested that he let those opps take their natural course and that he turn his attention to getting lucky on purpose. With three days left in the month, I asked how he was doing.
- He still needed about $6K
- None of the three close-ables had closed.
- He did get lucky and that's where the business came from. He also had enough 'getting lucky' opps to hit his number.
- When I asked why the three big ones didn't close, he said, "I need these prospects to stop acting like prospects'.
- They were hiding.
- The DM got involved too late.
- New & recycled objections every day.
- Pushing calls.
I wasn't sympathetic. Prospects act like prospects. It's their job. Prospects need to deal with salespeople. Patients see a doctor to get better. They don't act like prospects. Clients call their trusted advisor to get help. They don't act like prospects. Could it be that the reason your prospects are acting like prospects is because you're acting like a salesperson?
Then I asked how many times he tried to get lucky that day. He said none. I asked, why, because it didn't work? It worked. The $6K that he closed came from trying to get lucky. Then why did he stop? Silence.
Are your salespeople's prospects acting like prospects? Are they trying to figure out how to make quota on the last day of the month? Are you tired of pushing and wish that your salespeople would wake up?
It's the last day of the month. Do you want to listen to the same lame excuses next month or is it time?