Money Is Not The Root Of All Evil
By Gil Cargill, Sales Acceleration Coach
Money is not the root of all evil — at least when it comes to sales. No, the root of all evil in the sales world is the lack of consistent, proactive, predictable prospecting. When prospecting is done intermittently without proactive initiatives, the evils of sales can arise.
For instance, salespeople who don’t prospect consistently have a funnel that is rather “skinny.” Lacking an ample volume of additional prospects, many salespeople are inclined to discount prematurely and/or excessively. After all, there’s a little bit of humanity that says any deal’s better than no deal. On the other hand, if that salesperson has a very fat funnel with a lot of qualified opportunities, he/she is less inclined to discount.
Another evil that sets in when prospecting is not done optimally is low morale. I have visited hundreds of salesforces where salespeople have moaned, “Nobody’s buying this year.” Unfortunately, nobody’s buying because salespeople aren’t prospecting. One of my old managers said you have to A-S-K to G-E-T. In other words, if you’re not asking, you’re not getting; it’s just that simple. Consistent, predictable, and proactive prospecting will cure this particular problem.
Another evil resulting from poor sales volume is increased attrition. Dunn & Bradstreet once stated it costs over $500,000 to recruit, hire, train, and lose a sales rep because he/she isn’t selling fast enough to earn commissions and bonuses and/or profits for their employer. Make sure you have a consistent, proactive, and predictable prospecting system in place before you hire your next salesperson.
One of the huge evils I’ve seen repeatedly is the practice of hiring salespeople and expecting them to do their own prospecting. I hate to tell you: that worked great in the 20th century, but we are now in the 21st century. Buyers behave much differently than they did back in my early days of selling. Access to buyers is much more challenging than ever before and, as a result, new salespeople flounder and fail.
As much as it may seem to be counterintuitive, the DNA that makes one a great salesperson is not necessarily the DNA that makes one a great prospector. When you consider recent studies that show as much as 95 percent of all cold calls go into voicemail, it makes sense to consider an alternative way of prospecting. If you’d like to learn more about how to put your prospecting responsibilities on a fully automated prospecting system, click here.
I suggest you focus on filling the funnel in order to avoid these and many other evils that arise when the funnel is too “skinny.” Indeed, I’d like to say that a skinny funnel is the root of all evil.