Balancing Sales Intuition and Laziness

Part 5 of the Five Sales Killers.  See previous articles at:

The 5 Sales Killers

Sales Killer #1 – FEAR

Sales Killer #2 – FAILURE

Sales Killer #3 – MUNDANE

Sales Killer #4 – BELIEF

In our fifth installment on the 5 sales killers, we tackle something that sounds a lot like a good thing:  Comfort

Being comfortable seems like the destination for a lot of what we do in life.  We work hard so we can have a comfortable retirement.  We buy more comfortable clothes and comfortable furniture.  Great ideas for clothes, furniture, and retirement.  Not so great for a sales territory.  Why?  Because there is no tenure in sales.  There’s no guarantee that once you sell a customer, you will sell her again.  You might.  And if you did a good job of matching her needs to your products, then it’s even more likely you will sell her again.  But there are no guarantees.  You have to earn every sale.

The downward cycle towards getting too comfortable with a sale starts with good intentions.  First, we work really hard to sell a prospect.  Then, we work hard in the first months or maybe a year with them as a new customer.  At some point, they know just about everything there is to know about you and your company.  You know just about everything there is to know about them and their company.  So, you level off, quit trying and get comfortable with the level of sales you have with this customer.  You feel that you are “leaving the customer alone and not pressuring them to buy more”. To your customer, it may appear that you are “taking their business for granted.”  This gives a tenacious competitor the opportunity to come in and work harder than you on selling the customer.  Or, it drives the customer to look around for another supplier and do a little price shopping on your products.

What are some other signs you might be taking it too easy and getting a little too comfortable?  If you hear yourself or someone say one of the following quotes, it might be time to check your motives:

• “Let’s just do what we did last time, last week, last year.”
• “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.”
• “It’s been working good so far.”
• “I don’t need to do all that. I’ve been selling for 25 years.  I know what customers want or need.”
• “My customers don’t want all those sales tactics. I just need to go out there and be me or be real”

The motivation behind all of these comments is a combination of sales intuition and laziness.  We want to follow a pattern that has been working.  However, at some point, we just get lazy and quit bringing our energy to the sale.  It happens to all of us.  Often, I feel like doing the same thing I did for the last customer.  Just dust off the same old PowerPoint, switch the company name on the first slide and “Bam” I can wing it from there.   Do you think the customer picks up on it?  Do you think you start to sound like a drone?  Clicking through the presentation like one of those tour guides that gives the same presentation ten times a day?  The answer to all those questions is “Yes”.  And the worst part is your customer will never tell you.  Because it’s too confrontational to tell you, “Hey, sounds like you are bored to tears giving me this sales pitch”.  Instead, they let you finish your presentation, thank you for stopping by and say, “Let me think about it”

What to do when you suspect you might be too comfortable with a customer or too comfortable in your territory:

• Recognizing it is the hardest part. We are very skilled at justifying our behavior as salespeople.  We build enough excuses to convince ourselves we are doing everything right.  Start with your most trusted and important customers.  Do a self-review.  Ask yourself, “Am I doing everything I can to earn their business?” “Have I brought anything new to the table recently?”
• Approach your customer. For your key accounts that you really know well and have a high level of trust with, you can actually have a discussion about this topic.  My personal style is to be very direct and open with my intentions.  This subject might be a difficult one for your customer to understand. After all, it’s not every day that a salesperson asks them to discuss how they are doing as their sales rep.  Tell them you are trying to get better.  Even after 20 years of working hard for their business, you feel you might be taking their business for granted and you truly want to get better.  Once they realize you are sober and you really want to get better, they will help.
• Peer to Peer discussion. If you’ve been on territory for a long period of time, seek out another salesperson on your team who also has many years on territory.  Ask their advice and recommendations on how they deal with it.  If they do, great.  If they don’t, you might develop plans together on how you can work your way out of getting too comfortable.
• CHANGE: Change customers, change territories, change product lines, change your career path.  If you are truly in a rut and feel zero energy to get out of that rut, you might need a major change to shock yourself back to life.  If you feel you have done everything you can for a customer, maybe it’s time another salesperson takes over the account and sparks some life back into the sale.  Word of caution:  Don’t just try to dump your dogs off on your neighbor.  It will be obvious, annoying and they probably won’t agree to take them anyway.  For an even bigger change, you might turn your entire territory over and start on a new product line.  I know several salespeople that became tired of selling into the dairy feed industry and had a great second career in the retail feed industry.  For an even bigger change, take some time to review your strengths and passion for your business.  After you’ve reflected on it, discuss it with your sales manager.  Get her input and then suggest several career paths you are considering.  Some possible routes might be special projects, key account salesperson, or training and development.

I hope you have enjoyed and learned something from the five sales killers.  In summary:

• Don’t let Fear and Failure gang up and kill your efforts. Recognize them, learn from them and push right on through.
• Do the Mundane tasks it takes to be successful with each individual customer you call on.
• Believe in yourself, your products and your customer so you can believe 100% in the sale you are making.
• And finally check your motives around being too

Those are the five sales killers.  They kill sales. 

Want to know what kills salespeople?

Join me in a few weeks as we discuss the “Top 2 Salesperson Killers.”

For more Ag Sales Training, Ag Sales Coaching and Leading Ag Sales Teams, go to http://www.GregMartinelli.net/