(Post 3 in the Sales Series)
The last article was called “Nobody Sells Anything” . I threw down the gauntlet that Sales is a farce. Also, the entire vocabulary of sales was created by desperate managers trying to motivate frustrated employees to increase company revenues.
Big talk, right?
I can back it up.
If we remove the terminology from the situation and look at the transaction, what do we observe?
You see at least two parties engaged around a discussion of a potentially valuable product or service.
In the most basic description we could label them like this:
- Prospective Client
- Employee of company
- Decision Event
As a result of successful marketing, the prospective client is engaged in a conversation with an employee of the company about the product/service being offered and a decision will result in:
- a purchase,
- decline to purchase,
- or procrastination of the decision altogether.
There are only three possible outcomes.
The question for you is to discern how to define the possible outcomes. Who is the party taking action(s) and what actions are they capable and responsible to take?
If a prospective client states they want to buy a product, is there an employee for any company that would say “no”?
Of course not.
If a prospective client decides that they do not want to buy the product, can the employee really do anything to make them buy it, legally?
Of course not.
So why do we call the activity “Sales”? Why do we give the employee the credit for making the acquisition process happen? If the employee will not negate the client when they want to purchase or not purchase, why do pretend that they are in charge of sales?
They are only able to fulfill the prospective clients’ decisions.
Ego, that’s why.
And that’s where 98% of the “Sales” industry runs off the rails. They don’t have an accurate understanding of their job at the most fundamental level. We all crave control over our lives and careers.
To be charitable. I get it and I wish I had more control.
But if you want to be great, I mean truly great at something, you need to understand what you’re doing at the atomic level. That’s where I work to coach my business coaching clients around the United States to understand about sales and about their business. How does it all work?
This is an invitation to understand “sales” at the atomic level.
The very first thing I am going to do is to throw the word “Sales” out the door and replace it with “Buying”.
When we understand that the event is not a “Sale” event but rather a “Buying” event, it changes the focus from the salesperson to the prospective client – where it should have been all along.
Tune in next week as we look closely at this shift to the potential buyer in the equation and how that frees up our sales staff to become really great at the work they can actually control while the sales revenues increase for the company.
Business owners and entrepreneurs are invited to take my Free Online Assessment on the main page of the 7th Gear Website.
Other Articles of the Sales Series:
