You are probably Covided out. It’s exhausting keeping up with the reports on the ever changing restrictions and recommendations. Hopefully you, your friends or your family haven’t gotten sick and if you have it was with mild symptoms. Either way, right now you might be craving some simplicity in your life. I know I welcome keeping selling simple this year and especially now.
Focus on what works.
Stop kidding yourself this year. The deals that you tell your manager over and over again will close probably won’t. Why are you wasting your time on them? Revisit the fundamentals of who you should be calling on and who are most likely to do business with you. Resolve that you will spend more time on those accounts and less time on those less likely to buy from you.
Look to prospects who have a shorter sales cycle for you, are more profitable for you or are easier for you to serve.
Your manager also should accept responsibility for this lack of focus. Managers should be asking more specific questions about the current situation to learn why their salespeople think the deal is likely to close. These are the questions he should be asking: Who can say yes to the deal? Who can say no? What is the existing problem that you can solve? How much does it cost the customer to do nothing about this problem? When the cost to do nothing is low, the customer is unlikely to buy.
The answers to these questions will show both managers and salespeople if in fact the deal will close. That’s keeping your selling simple.
The first step to focus on what works is to notice what isn’t working. Think about that. What frustrated you last year? What caused you the most problems? What was most difficult? This year why not resolve either fixing those issues or stopping them?
Accept what you cannot change.
The Stoic school of philosophy recognizes that what exists is supposed to happen. That’s what is both good and bad. I believe that everything happens for the best. It just might not look so at the time. Your past failures in sales and successes in sales make you what you are today. Are you recognizing that ideally you have learned something valuable from your experience?
This year be kinder to yourself when things don’t go the way you want them to. Why not challenge yourself to first calmly examine the failure Instead of full-court anger or depression? Yes, losing a big deal is disappointing, but it’s not pancreatic cancer. Think about that the next time you berate yourself or others when something doesn’t go the way you want it to.
Remember that all things come to an end.
Nothing lasts forever. Sadly that’s for the good things as well. They won’t last forever. Remember that it’s the good things that contrast with the bad so you hopefully are appreciating the good things more. Be thankful for what you had and what you will have.
Confucius once said that life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Keep your selling simple this year and resist the urge to make it more complicated.