The buyer's cycle has changed. These days, when a buyer wants to make a purchase, they have all of the tools located in the palm of their hand. If you are not making the buying process as frictionless as possible, then you are most likely going to lose out on a sale.
Even if it's a long buying cycle, it still needs to be a seamless one! In this article, we discuss valuable lessons for salespeople and their sales leaders, including an excerpt from legendary UCLA Head Coach John Wooden and his former player (and NBA star) Bill Walton.
“The only difference between successful salespeople and the other 77% is that the successful salespeople actually do the very things they don’t like doing.”
This is a quote from Dave Kurlan’s blog post about Bill Walton and John Wooden (see Additional Resources below). Dave uses role-playing as an example. I see this all the time! Ask someone to role play in front of the group and they shut tight like a clam.
How can you possibly get better at pressure situations if you don’t practice under pressure?
Bill has published and is now marketing his book, Back from the Dead. I read a couple of lines from an interview with GQ and immediately went to my Amazon add-in and downloaded the book with my 1-click.
Here was my amazing buying experience:
In your sales world, it might not take as many steps or it might be more. In your sales cycle, it probably takes more than a minute—maybe 30 days, maybe 120, maybe a year.
Bottom line: There is something that stimulates the buyer. The buyer gets the information they want and then… when they want to buy… they want to make the process easy and they want options.
If you are not doing those things (stimulating the buying response – providing information to make a buying decision – giving them options – making it easy), then you are going to lose the sale to those that do those things.
Not only will you lose occasionally, but sooner or later, it will become a permanent condition.
Now, my favorite Bill Walton and John Wooden story.
Watch the video to get the whole story, but in short, the lesson for the Sales Leader is this:
Additional Resources:
Dave Kurlan’s blog:
The Sales Success Secret Shared by Bill Walton and John Wooden
Unless you have strong leadership, the money you spend on sales training is wasted. Stop wasting money. In addition to great players, the key to a sales team built for growth is great sales management Leadership and Management. Read more about our Sales Management Certification.
Make sure you get great players who are committed to winning for you – Hirebettersalespeople.com