SALES: Are you a sales quitter?

In my experience, most salespeople (including myself) give up after the first couple of attempts to close a deal. Unfortunately, a survey of Sales Executives indicated that less than 5% of sales were made in the first two calls. So how many calls does it take to close the deal? Probably more than you think. In research conducted in Los Angeles, over 81% of sales required 5 or more calls. In fact, numerous studies have demonstrated that the single biggest differentiator between "good" and "great" salespeople is persistence. So why do we give up? It’s rarely because of anything the customer said, but rather what we’ve said to ourselves.

[Source: Sales & Marketing Executives Club of Los Angeles and The Dartnell Corp]

I constantly hear Salespeople say, “Well if she hasn’t returned my call after the second time, I figure she must not want to talk to me and I don’t want to bother her. That could hurt our relationship.” I just want to scream, “ARE YOU CRAZY!?! What relationship? If you don’t have the sale, you don’t have a relationship!” This is a perfect example of poor self-talk, or as Dr. Martin E. Seligman calls it in his bestselling book, Learned Optimism, poor “explanatory style”.

In decades of psychological testing, Dr. Seligman discovered that how we explain events to ourselves dramatically impacts how we understand our situation and how we subsequently behave. If we explain to ourselves that the buyer didn’t return our calls because, “She doesn’t want to talk to us,” it is highly unlikely that we’ll ever make another call. And, if we don’t, we certainly won’t get the sale. Admit it, we’ve all done this.

The path to sales excellence is simple; change your explanatory style. When faced with a barrier, identify the other possible causes.

“Perhaps the buyer is on vacation.”
“Maybe she’s just really busy and hasn’t been able to get through the 125 voicemails she probably gets every day.”
“It’s certainly possible that she deleted my message by accident.”
“Maybe she wants to talk to me, but is waiting for my next call.”

My rule of thumb is to come up with 10 alternative explanations. I find that by the time I do, I’m motivated to make that next call. And the best part is that there is no risk. If my initially pessimistic explanation was right, at least I know and you can’t lose a sale you never had. But, more importantly, if one of my alternative explanations is right, I’m actually helping us both and demonstrating my commitment to the customer (whether I get the sale or not).

So get back out there! Nuke those bad assumptions! Make that 5th, 6th, or 20th call and make the sale for your and your customers’ sake.