7 Ways to keep the Sales Fires Burning

Whether it’s the dead of winter,
the dog days of summer
or the middle of a pandemic,
you need to keep pursuing the sale

But How?  I’m tired…. seeing little progress…. customer complaints are piling up….

 Selling in agribusiness is playing the long game.  We typically need to call on a prospect many times before selling them.  Prospecting can seem futile as we try and try, but see little progress.  Motivation can diminish as the days go by without a sale or breakthrough.

In training sessions, I like to explain that it’s like building a fire.  You have to start small, build your base and then keep adding to fire as it grows.  If you drop the ball and let the prospect’s interest (the fire) go out, then you have to start over again. 

Here are 7 tactics to keep the sales fires burning in your territory:

#1:  Start Small:

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your territory.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.  You are feeling down or the journey seems too daunting.  You may feel like it’s futile to even start.  Here’s the cure, Start.  Take a step; one that you can accomplish in one hour or one day.  Recently, I launched the 21-Day Selling Skills Challenge.  This was a simple way to take 15 minutes a day and work on improving a selling skill.  The idea was that almost every person can spare 15 minutes a day.  During the challenge, I heard great comments on what salespeople were doing to improve each day.  At the end, I asked many of the participants if they had sacrificed getting other tasks done because they used these 15 minutes.  “No” was the universal response.  They had lost nothing by implementing the challenge. 

#2:  Pick one item

After you agree to start small, there can be too many directions to go in.  You might struggle to select the direction to go.  Some salespeople will go “an inch deep a mile wide”.  By that, I mean they have 60 customers and over 100 prospects.  So, they try to go see all of them.  This just waters down their effective selling skills.  My advice is to select a narrower group and focus on them. 

#3:  Reframe Setbacks

We’ve all heard the story of Edison who failed 499 times at inventing a light bulb.   What you may not know is that your last airline flight was off course about 95% of the time.  The pilot and auto-pilot make constant course corrections as they fly to a destination.  It’s no different for your selling approach.  You have the best of intentions, the best of pre-call plans, but life happens.  Appointments get cancelled, customers throw a new piece of information at you, new objections are interjected into the selling process.  Instead of viewing it as a setback or a failure, course correct and keep flying (selling).

#4:  Share It

Nothing beats an accountability partner for helping you persist.  We know the importance of a coach for keeping us motivated to exercise.  The same holds true for an accountability partner in sales.  Let your peers, your co-workers and your manager know your goals.  Believe it or not, we are more likely to hold ourselves accountable when someone else has higher expectations for us.

#5:  Be Accountable

To yourself.  This goes right along with #4.  You have to have some discipline to hold yourself accountable to keep the selling fires burning.  If you stumble and drop the ball, it’s not the end of the world.  One trip to McDonalds will not ruin your weeks or months of dieting.  Maybe you set a goal to prospect one day a week.  The last two weeks were busy with current customers and you didn’t get a chance to prospect.  No problem.  Start back up this week.  If this happens, call your accountability partner and let them know you stumbled but are trying to get back to your commitment.  I’m sure they will encourage you to do so.

#6:  Measure Progress

What gets measured, gets done.  Set easy to measure data points with an easy to view dashboard.  I like to measure myself against myself.  Yes, I love to compete and want to be at the top of the sales charts.  However, they can be intimidating if you are starting out or you are very low on the charts.  My first sales meeting, I was a very distant last on a chart of 30 salespeople.  It seemed impossible to get to the top of those charts.  At that point in my sales career, I focused on beating my own results.  This month over my last month.  This quarter over my last quarter and so on.  Eventually, making it to the top of the charts, I felt inspired to compare myself to others on the team.

#7:  Celebrate

Not with a party, but reflection.  Take a few minutes along the climb to look back to where you started.  This works in mountain climbing and any long journey.  When the road ahead looks too steep, take a minute to turn around and see how far you have come.  These were great discussions at sales meetings as we all reflected on how improved we were over the old days.  Take a break and recharge your selling energy batteries.  You might go see a favorite account.  Or, call and brag to your coach, manager or accountability partner.  Let them know you needed to brag on yourself or you might be viewed as arrogant.  Take that short break and then get right back to the activities that got you there.

The sales road can seem like it’s up hill both ways and knee deep in snow.  We often don’t receive much encouragement.  If you are feeling this way, take some time to reflect on these 7 methods.  Which would help you the most.  Which will help you keep your Sales Fires Burning?

Great, now go do it!

______________________________________________________________________________________

For those that completed the 21 Day Challenge, I promised a free webinar on Sales Productivity.

Congratulations! and here is the link to the webinar I will be hosting next Thursday, Feb 11th from 12-1 pm central US time

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Feb 11, 2021 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Topic: The 21 Day Challenge on Sales Productivity

_____________________________________________________________________________________