What Do You Want?

Credit: Jean Hull

If you manage salespeople you’re going to sit through “hands in the air” conversations. A rep is going to be frustrated that they can’t make progress with a specific prospect. You’re going to hear, “I’ve tried everything and nothing works. I’m getting nowhere.”

My response is always the same. “Tell me about your last call. Fill me in. What did you want to accomplish and what did you talk about?”

100% of the time the response is a blank stare. The rep will eventually say something like, “I talked to them about our new gadget.” Or, “I told them about the awards we won.” “I promised great service.” The “what did you want to accomplish” question is missed.

Unfortunately, that is the most important thing. Asking yourself what you hope to accomplish sets goals. It frames objectives and forces you to contrast where you are with where you want to be.

Here’s a funny thing about goals. Getting them firm in mind forces you to face reality. Goals cause you to identify where you are on the map. “I’m here and I want to get there. How will I do that? What is a realistic goal for my next call? What is my best plan to make that happen?”

Getting realistic removes pressure. You focus on moving the sales needle. You don’t get hung up on earning a quote or purchase order TODAY. You do what you need to do to move the relationship down the line closer to doing business.

The best sales advice I ever received was “Plan the call & Replay the call.” Walk in with an agenda. Know what outcome will mark the call as successful. When the call ends, rerun it in your head. What did you accomplish? What do you need to do next? What will you do differently next time?

These are critical process improvement steps. If you do this, you’ll identify what works and you’ll sell more stuff. You’ll have a repeatable process too.

Selling is full of misfires because we don’t set reasonable goals. We don’t study our own process. We fail to focus on what matters.

I often cite the following example.

Years ago, a rep walked into my office. He said, “we need a brochure.” I responded, “I agree. What do you want it to say?”

He looked stumped. Finally, he said, “we’re a high-quality commercial printer with good service.”

I tossed the yellow pages at him. Old guys, tell the young guys what the yellow pages were. I said, “find me an ad for a low quality commercial printer with lousy service.” He got the point.

Set goals. What do you want to accomplish in each call? If you can’t answer that, you need to skip the appointment. You’ll get stuck.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.