I know you have heard it before. You know, the line that goes like this “if you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten.” As a coach, the most development I have seen in salespeople comes when they alone decide enough is enough which leads them to make changes. And sometimes those changes are hard to make.
While there are many aspects that I love about my job, here are three in no particular order:
- I have the privilege of working with some incredible companies and some incredible people across the United States.
- I have the privilege of working alongside a team at Anthony Cole Training Group whose talent is only eclipsed by the quality of their character.
- I have the privilege of sitting in a front row seat that allows me to coach and watch some of the best salespeople in the world.
Today’s blog is about #3.
My sense is there are numerous articles and blogs on what great salespeople do…so today I want to flip that coin over and talk about what great salespeople never do. Perhaps they used to do those things, but at some point, in their sales career they drew a line in the sand and said no more. And those things became habits. They became the habits of sales greatness.
Here are four things great salespeople never do:
- They never show up unprepared and simply “wing it” on a sales call. They execute a precall plan where they identify the questions they are going to ask the prospect as well as they questions the prospect may ask them. They tailor the call for resonance by making sure they are talking about issues that are likely to be important to the prospect.
- They never blame anyone or anything for their lack of success. They don’t blame the economy, the competition, or the marketing department. They own the outcomes they create. By the way, that is my preferred definition of the word accountability – owning the outcome that you created.
- They never compromise the value they bring to the table. They know the value of their firm and they know the value that they bring to the table. And if the prospect doesn’t see or appreciate that value, then the salesperson simply moves on.
- They never (and I mean never ever) stop prospecting. It does not matter if they are crushing it or if they are struggling, they keep networking and they keep hunting for new business. They keep hunting because they know that weak pipelines make cowards of us all. They know that it is hard to move on to better qualified opportunities if they don’t have those already in the pipeline.
As a salesperson, what are you doing that you should stop doing? Who knows, you might be just one bad habit away from sales greatness.
