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My first Sales Manager taught me "your success will depend on how good you are and how hard you work".
It took me twenty years to realize he was
wrong, wrong, wrong.
Why? R
ead on....
Mike S.
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Sometimes common sense isn't so common. When my boss challenged me to work hard and master my craft, I jumped in with both feet. Nobody worked harder to learn the products and applications, and nobody made more sales calls.
Skills: How Good We Are
That meant learning the products and applications to the point where I could train like a trainer, support like a CSR, and even do
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"Trust Me & Keep Working" |
minor service work. I studied the competitor's products to understand their strengths and weaknesses. I tried to read every expert's opinion as to the market, trends, and new technologies.
That also meant signing up for every selling class I could find, and reading every major sales book. I remember reading Tom Hopkins' "How to Master the Art of Selling" again and again, and memorizing his closing questions word for word.
Activities: How Hard We Work
My sales manager challenged me to visit, on site, every business in my territory. At the time, that was all of Hollywood, FL and the southern half of Fort Lauderdale. A metro area of approximately 300,000 people.
For months, I made at least twenty on-site prospecting calls a day, until I had visited every single business in my territory in person.
And the Results Were...
After about a year of brutal work, studying, learning, and prospecting, I looked up at the sales rankings and noticed an extremely troubling fact. I wasn't at the top of the list, or even near it.
If I was the best closer and the hardest working guy, why wasn't I at the top?
"Einstein" Finally Figures it Out
I had been on a mission to learn the elusive secret of success. Little did I know  that the answer was hardly a secret, and it was staring me right in the face.
Finally, I figured out. Top performers weren't closing lots of sales, they were selling to a few loyal, big accounts.
A big account isn't necessarily one large site, It can be a chain of retail locations. It can be a network of affiliated companies. It can be a small company that buys huge amounts of technology or applications. It can start as a branch office that reports to a corporate HQ. A great account simply needs to do enough business to move the needle on your sales quota!
The Secret of Top Performers
In a survey of 28 I.T. Solution Providers, the average top salesperson generated over $1 Million in Gross  Profit and earned close to $300,000 in income. None of these salespeople made the most cold calls or closed the most accounts. Every one managed to win and retain a number of large, profitable accounts.
Correct, but Not the Best Answer
So my old sales manager was well intentioned, but he ended up giving bad advice. Success is NOT a factor of how good you are and how hard you work.
It's far more important to focus your activity in an optimal way. And that means targeting and winning great accounts. As Peter Drucker famously said, "The job of an executive is to be effective." That's not doing
THINGS RIGHT, it's doing the
RIGHT THINGS.
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WEBINARS
12 Disruptive Forces Shaping the IT Industry
Wednesday, Sep 26
"Micro Sales
vs.
Macro Sales"
How Elite Salespeople Make Huge Sales
Tuesday, Nov 15
12:00 noon
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Orlando, FL
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Here is your chance to see if you are as smart as you think you are.
Think of a difficult or impossible Sales Management problem. Enter it into the question box below.
Mike will provide deep insight into your dilema, based on his 25 years of Sales Management experience. Or not. It depends on how silly the question is. E-Mail Mike at:
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If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If you are just looking for the "unsubscribe" option, it's below.
"Carpe Dinero" = Seize the Money.
Sincerely,
Mike Schmidtmann
(703) 408-9103
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Feel free to SWIPE* any ideas you find useful, and "pay it forward!
*Steal With Integrity, Purpose and Enthusiasm"
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