Sales Chump

Would you like to move up in your current department or company?  Do you like collecting a check every month and not wondering where the next will come from?  If so, treat every day like it is an interview.

Each day your are at your job you are being watched and evaluated.  Are you doing the things that will make your self successful at your current job?  Do you go above and beyond what is required of you on a daily basis?  Do you make yourself more of an asset than anyone else in your position?  These are the things that will get you a promotion, not an interview.

If you had a rocky start with some bumps along the way and you’re worried how that may affect any future openings, first make a pact with yourself.  Make sure this is something you can totally correct and make a complete turn around from.  Once you have made that pact with yourself, then notify your direct supervisor or manager.  Follow up with an email so you have a written trail.  Let him or her know that you apologize for your past conduct and you realize you haven’t been living up to your full potential.  You can draw the line in the sand so to speak and hopefully that will be behind you.  Be sure to track your progress and always keep the email on hand so you can reference it and remind yourself you’ve moved forward.  This will show your manager you can set a goal, stick to it and accomplish it.  It also shows you stay true to your word. 

There are still promotions and growth these days but there are also slowdowns and lay-offs.  Your actions should remain the same regardless.  A lot of times lay-offs will happen no matter what but many other times they are discretionary.  If you are doing the things that separate yourself from the rest of the pack you may be spared while the weak are let go.

In good times and bad, each day should be treated as an interview if you want to keep your current position or move up.

I dabbled just briefly with B2B Sales in B2B Sales Part 1.  Now we get just a little further into this section of sales.  There are full sites dedicated to B2B Sales so tackling all aspects in a matter of one or two posts will not be feasible nor would it be logical to do so.  In this edition of B2B Sales, we will talk about “the chase”.

The chase is the beginning steps of the B2B sales process.  This is where you will be either cold calling or gathering information.  It’s called “the chase” as you will be trying to find the decision maker or when they look at the service you provide.  Not every prospect you talk to will be looking at your product or service right when you happen to call them.  In a perfect world, this will happen but we all know the world we live in is not this way.

Set goals for the first part of your call.  For me it results to my goals for cold calling.  I want to accomplish just a couple things in my first call in a B2B sales process.  I want to know:

1. Who the decision maker is
2. When they make these decisions
3. How important this service is to their business

Those are my biggest 3 objectives on my first call and the beginning steps of the B2B Sales process. Now this step is called the chase because #1 above isn’t always as quick as just asking for it.  Sometimes it takes time.  Especially dealing with big companies that have their own bureaucracy.

As in the other post, this type of sales cycle tends to be a little longer.  Sometimes it can be quick but don’t get frustrated if the sales cycle lasts longer.  Look at the product your selling, how long it took others to act on it and various other factors.  If your average sales cycle is 3 weeks for an entire sales cycle, don’t spend 3 weeks on trying to get a decision maker.  You could have completed another sale by now.  If you can’t land a deal, cut bait!

Here is a little story about turning lemons into lemonade. A little over a year ago, I lost a very close friend of mine due to an illness. I researched, planned and did whatever I thought I could do to try and help her. After a short battle, I just couldn’t change what was in the cards.

There are some things you just can’t change, no matter how unfair they may be or how hard you try. But, you CAN change what these events mean to you. It’s an incredible power, which gives you total control over your life. If you can’t change what is happing to you, you can surely change what it means to you.

It’s not easy at first, it will take some practice and discipline. Your mind is like any other muscle in your body, it gets stronger with repeated action. By flexing your mental muscle, it will get easier to “look at the bright side” of things.

In the case of my beloved friend, I was very upset and began blaming myself, God, the doctors, etc… It was an extremely powerful feeling of sorrow that I knew I had to change or I would fall into a deep depression. I took this negative feeling and began focusing my energies on my current situation. What did I not like about it? Well, I was not that happy with my job, the city I lived in, or my current state of health. I decided at that moment that was going to change everything in my life that I was not satisfied with. I felt that dealing with the passing of my friend would be easier if I could begin on positive changes in my own life. Life will make more sense when energy is not spent blaming others, but rather concentrating on how changes to certain feelings will fix the problem.

After just a year, I have obtained a great new job in a fun and exciting city, received a promotion, dropped 12 lbs, furnished a house, paid off nearly all my debt and recently married a beautiful woman. Life has gotten a little easier, although. I still miss my friend very much, but the unfairness of the situation has taken a backseat to the good times that I remember more clearly now.

The point is that life will change in ways that you don’t initially want it too. But, welcome it with new eyes as you control what these changes will mean to you. You have the power of how these changes will affect you. It takes practice and in some cases, a lot of reminding yourself of what you’re trying to accomplish. Strengthen those mental muscles and they will get stronger. It’s an unlimited power that you can give yourself.

The positive changes in my life have helped me deal with an extremely negative experience that could have easily gone the other way, if I l let it. It was much harder not to, but in the end it was well worth it.

“When faced with a decision to make, the harder one to make is usually the right one.” – The Negotiator

2009 is right around the corner and the question is - where are you going?

What will you accomplish? Who will you help? How will you grow? Okay, those are a couple of questions!
And they are all worth considering.

As salespeople we can get complacent and in a rut. My grandmother used to say “you have your needle stuck in a groove.” Now, you have to remember LPs to understand the statement. For those of you who don’t - she simply meant that you are stuck in a rut.

Sometimes awareness is all it takes to get out of the rut. For me, it’s awareness and then decision making. If you find yourself doing the same things, consider changing it up. The world is different now than it was a year ago. And so are you. So are your clients, your prospects, and dare I say, your value.

What are you doing to set your path for the coming year? Share your answers so we can all learn from each other.