It's been a while since I used a sports analogy and in the middle of college football I had to write a post sooner or later and about sports and sales.  This particular post is about what to do when you are behind in the sales game and time is running out.  Here you go.  These 4 sales practice steps will get you back in the game and get you ahead in the next game.

1. Stick to the fundamentals.  The fundamentals are what drive consistent sales results. The fundamentals are what you can count on to get back on track.  Prospect, qualify, communicate next steps, present great and unique solutions, ask for the business.
2. Work hard.  My dad was a foreman on a blueberry farm.  His motto was:  When all else fails hard work works.  Worked on the farm. Works in selling.
3. Prioritize.  This is critical all the time in selling.  What we teach in our sales training classes is the following:  "Go to Activity".  When you are behind it becomes even more important to focus on those go to activities that create and close sales. 
4. As you work to get ahead of the game you will be tempted to take on any prospect you can find.  don't do it.  Stick to your ideal prospect.

There you go.  Stick to fundametnals, work hard, prioritize and stick with your game plan.  Keep to this game plan and two things will happen.  You will finish the year with a great flurry of results and be off to a great start next year.

Here are five sales benefits of calling at the top when you prospect:

1. You will have the attention of the ultimate decision maker of the sale
2. You will shorten your sales cycle as a result of being with the decision maker
3. When you run into problems with people that manage or administer your program, service or product you have a relationship with someone that can fix the problem.
4. If the problems you uncover are real problems you will be in front of the person that will find the money to fix the problem and complete the sale
5. When you call at the top you will know if a current relationship will derail you from getting the sale.

Your decision when you are prospecting is to decide:  How important is it for you to have these 5 sales benefits.  If these benefits won't help you sell more business, more quickly at higher margins then keep calling on those that can only tell you know, limit your budget, and limit your abililty to effectively implement a plan, program or service the exceeds the prospects expectations.

In our world of sales training and sales development much is made of sales techniques:  Opening statements, value proposition, closing techniques, open ended questions etc.  And I'm sure that if you've attended training you had all you can handle concerning the 10 best ways to close more deals more easily.  Or the 5 best ways to see the unseeable prospect.  And yet after all of that training little has changed in your results.  Oh sure you've made some incremental changes but is that what you are really after. Aren't you trying to get to a point where you can describe your sales practice as extra-ordinary?  Certainly anyone that has been in selling long enough wants more that average and wants more than incremental improvement when investing time and money in 'training' or development'. To quote one of our sales development experts, Mark Trinkle, "To what extent do you think that maybe the training you've gone to is the problem?"

How much time have the training programs spent on the root causes of an ineffective selling system?  How much time have they spent on discussing the importance of understanding the impact of 'need for approval' or a 'non-supportive buy cycle"?  You see until you get to the root cause of a problem all you can do is treat the symptom.  All you can do is run faster to get more results.

 Try finding out what the root problem is and treat that as an infection. Get rid of the problem - get better sales results.

Very few people we get a chance to get in front of for training are excited about being there the first time. By the second session, there begins a process of acceptance and, by our third visit, we normally have 90% of the room fully engaged and wanting more.

This says a great deal about the participant, as well as our approach to training and development. My focus today is on you, the participant, and how to get the most out of any training that you participate in either voluntarily, or as a sponsored program from your employer.

1. Remember that whatever you are ready for is ready for you. As an example: If you are ready to learn how to upgrade your prospect and client list, then the information is available to teach you to do that.
2. Not everything in a training session or program is going to connect with everyone in the room. That is an impossible objective, so go into the meeting looking for ‘one' thing to take with you. There is always at least one thing.
3. Open your parachute. We tell our new clients that 'the mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open.' Keep an open mind as you will surely hear something that is new and different.
4. Get involved in the session. It is easy to hide in a session and just wait for time to pass. It is uncomfortable to participate, to role play, and to ask those questions that you think might be stupid or challenging. The more you put into a session the more you will get out.
5. Implement something. I heard Tony Robbins say years ago that knowledge is not power, but knowledge in action is power. Take something that you've learned and put it to action. Commit to doing something different, new, and uncomfortable, even though you might fail; then try it again.

At Anthony Cole Training Group we love training and coaching. We love it when someone tells us in subsequent meetings that they ‘tried something and it worked.' Often they don't believe it will and so they've learned. What may be just as important is trying something new and it doesn't work. That is learning to take risk and growing, which is a valuable lesson in training and development.

Finally, make sure that outside of any training program you participate in, engage in reading. I remember Mark Victor Hansen quoting Charlie Jones: "Except for the people you meet, the books you read and the audio material you listen to you will be exactly the same person 3 years from now that you are today."

Not a good place to be is it?