Everyone of us has heard this type of near miss at least 100 times, and probably used it themselves 100 times or more.
“You know, I came so close to getting that sale, in fact I almost had them on the dotted line at least 2 or 3 times. You’ve got no idea how close I came, but I didn’t sell. But a lot of good came out of the call, and I’m sure it created a lot of good PR for the company. Besides, I enjoyed the opportunity of getting to meet up with them.”
What a lot of unnecessary self justification and excuses because professionalism was probably lacking.
What commission did the individual earn, and what commission did the company make. How much money found its way into either bank account as a result of that one call. Not one Red Cent.
Show me on professional who considers himself or herself strictly as unpaid public relations expert or is satisfied at not making a sale on a near miss call. I’ve not heard any of them brag about it. They learn from it and then go back to focussing on the real reason for making the call – to bring back the order on every call if at all humanly possible.
Good PR is very important in every business. but PR by itself doesn’t produce sales – PR isn’t designed to. Selling produces PR. PR people aren’t trained to sell. And salespeople shouldn’t try and become PR people.
Remember, only people that focus on the issue at hand can see the goal clearly enough to hit it more times than they miss. When they miss – they don’t offer excuses – they work at getting it right the next time.
You need to Persist until You Succeed
Let’s reveal a few home truths before you start getting too carried away with your personal beliefs about your abilities. And the one important thing that you have to take into account here is it has taken you your whole lifetime, as well as your whole selling career, to become the person you are today. So you’ll need to stop, take time to do some soul searching, more time to evaluate where you need to improve, and how you will need to change how and what you focus on.
Next you will need to understand that any change in your personality will not come overnight – so you will have to become patient about who you are, where you are heading and the changes that will take place in you both mentally and sub-consciously.
Remember, this, people grow and become better over the course of time. We all need to understand that we meed to persist gently in the direction of our goals and dreams. Expecting an overnight transformation may cause you to get discouraged because it’s too hard, but if you allow yourself at least two to three months to see real change and real break-throughs, then you have a chance to start on the journey to be what you want to be and to go where you want to go. Now go for it.
It’s important to use your sales experience to help you navigate through the sales process with your new sales prospects. But in the process don’t allow your experience to bypass learning as much as you can about every new prospect you develop, or that crosses your path.
Now Focus on What Your Imagination Can Do
Imagination is a positive trait because creativity comes from imagination – and it’s the creativity that upgrades our results to the bigger and better ones.