As I’ve written in previous blogs there is both an “art” as well as a “science” to selling. The “art” of selling includes building rapport/trust, establishing/nurturing relationships, etc. The “science” of selling includes the rigor and discipline of doing productive selling activities on a daily basis. Listed below are selected productive versus unproductive selling activities:
Productive Selling Activities
- Got to the Decision Maker early in the sales cycle
- Engaged the Decision Maker in strategic, proactive conversations
- Uncovered “need”
- Differentiated myself from my competition
- Cost-justified my solution
- Got a referral
- Short sales cycle
- Big commission dollars
- Knocked out the competition
- Had multiple points of contact
- Received repeat business
Unproductive Selling Activities
- Didn’t get to the Decision Maker
- Was reactive/tactical
- Couldn’t uncover “need”
- My solution was viewed as a commodity
- Couldn’t cost-justify my solution
- Mystery Decision Maker
- Sales cycle dragged on and on
- Wasted a lot of time/Opportunity costs
- Competition won
- Had a single-point failure
- Didn’t realize that they were never going to buy in the first place…they were using me to “beat up” the incumbent
Take a moment to review both lists and check how many apply to your world and then modify your behavior accordingly
