Mastering the Art of Success
created a sales culture that will differentiate them fr om their
competitors.
Not leaving with a next step, people just walk out of a discovery
meeting thinking, “Man, that was a really good call,” but in reality, they
left with nothing. They have nothing to really move the sales process
fo rward.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who do not ask for the
sa le. They get f rustrated, and if I get a client like this, I say, “Let’s walk
through the sales process. Did you do this?”
The client says, “No.”
“Did you plan?”
“No, no I didn’t. I just k ind of winged it.”
“How is your script?”
“Well, it’s pretty weak.”
“Did you leave with a next step?”
All of these obstacles fall under the umbrella of fear of rejection,
fear of failure, and even fear of success. While I am c oaching someone, I
look at the whole person and really dive in and find the triggers—the
fear triggers. I assist clients past these triggers so they can move
fo rward in overcoming the fear of planning. I ask these questions: Is
there a reason why you are not planning? Why don’t you believe in an
effective script? Why are you not leaving with a next step? What
co nfidence do you need to actually ask for the next step and be bold
enough? Although it seems obvious that all sales professionals should
ask these questions, most often they do not!
The best compliment I think I have ever had in my sales training
career was from a gray-haired gentleman, ready for retirement, who
had been in a sales for thirty years. He said, “Great training, Mark. I
needed this twenty-nine years ago!”
When I reflected on that, I realized that we all pick up bad habits,
ev en if we are good at what we do. We have to break the bad habits and
continually review our sales skills to make them better. It does n ot
matter how o ld we are or how l ong we have been in the business, we
ne ed to be lifelong lear ners. We a ll get rusty. We fall into the trap of
doing the same old thing with the same old r esults. Sales coaching is a