Your Sales Strategy Needs to Evolve

I was having a conversation with a colleague who’s in sales and he said something interesting.

He said most new sales associates’ first year in any new company and especially industry is tough.

It takes time to build relationships.

After the first year, maybe even the second year, the phone starts to ring.

But that’s because you’ve now shown up for several in-person encounters, events, golf, drinks… and that’s how deals are made.

If you’re new, nobody knows you, you’re not building relationships… then it’s going to be tough.

Sending email blasts doesn’t work all that well.

You need to meet people face to face, do lunchs, leave-behinds, know the names of their family, ask how their vacation was…

There’s no shortcut to building trust.

Continue Reading: Lessons I Learned from Going Viral

You're Not in the Sales Business, You're in the Relationship Business

Often in life, it’s a matter of shifting your perspective. Two of my favourite quotes on perspective are:

“It’s not the deer crossing the road, but the road crossing the forest.”

“A farmer and a builder look at a field differently.”

What’s my point?

Don’t think about ‘How can I sell something?’ or ‘How can I extract value?’… instead think, ‘How can I strengthen this relationship?’, or ‘How can I add value?’

Speaking with the same colleague, he dropped another piece of wisdom.

He said, “My team is the number one sales team in the country, and we’ve been number one for 5 years in a row. How do you think I did it? Did I get lucky? Did I just happen to have the best sales people? Am I good at hiring? Good at training? Good at removing weak links?”

“Tell me,” I replied.

“The reason we continue to be number one is because there’s a fundamental difference in the way my team approaches sales. I tell my team, we are not in the sales business, we are in the relationship business.”

“Say more,” I said.

“Unlike every other sales team, nobody on my team knows their sales figure, they only know the team’s sales figures. They don’t know if they are a high performer, a low performer, or somewhere in the middle. All we focus on is the overall team sales. During our 1:1 meetings, I invite them into my office, pick out three clients at random and start asking questions:

“Tell me about Bill Simpson. What’s his wife’s name? What are his kid’s names? What’s his favourite restaurant? What are his hobbies and interests? What’s his wife’s favourite flower? Where do they plan to go on their next vacation? What’s a big purchase they are considering… If you don’t know the answers to these and other questions, then you don’t know Bill well enough. After this meeting, contact Bill and set up a lunch. Take him to his favourite restaurant, get to know him, but under no circumstances do you try to sell him something.

“If and when he’s ready to buy something, he’ll think of you. Just build the relationship. Your goal is to know him well enough, and be liked enough to be invited to his birthday or wedding.”

“And that’s how we’re number one in the country for 5 consecutive years.”