The Goal is Not the Goal and What Really is a Sale?
I wrote this to help my sales staff. Feel free to use and modify it for your sales team (but please do not republish it on the web or offer it for sale).
When I was growing up I was taught to have goals. If it was academics then it was about what marks I wanted to finish the year with. If it was sports it was about “you gotta want it.”
Several years ago, when I was reading Tony Robbins’ Unlimited Power, I learned that the goal is not the goal. The goal, what we tell ourselves we want, is just a mental cue that, if it connects to our values, if we repeat it in enough ways (writing it down, repeating it to ourselves, visualizing it), the goal becomes a part of our neurological makeup.
The unfortunate thing about goals is that they are victims of a human survival mechanism – the conservation of energy.
If we set a goal of winning 20 out of 30 basketball games, we will only win 19 or fewer. If we want to make $1,000,000 then we will make something less. If we want 100 sales, again, we will close fewer than 100.
Even though we are telling our brains we want 100 sales, our brain sets up the neuro pathways while factoring conservation of energy. The brain says, well if 100 sales is good, then I’m sure we’ll be happy with 90. And we get 90 sales.
This is one of the services we provide. The people we are selling to are also potential customers for other services so having a sales team aware that a “no” on Product-A may mean a “yes” on Product-B.
Visit Canada SEO to see the sales site.
Tony’s tip for this was to set a goal well beyond what we want. If we calculate we want 100 sales then we should tell ourselves we want 200 sales – AND BELEIVE IT! Repeat it, write it, visualize it, and tell it to the world!
Now we have a goal – what next?
What is a Sale?
There are two kinds of thinking with a huge gray area in-between. There’s short term thinking and there’s long term thinking.
Short term thinking is about – sell now! Long term thinking is about building a relationship to sell more.
Which is better? Well, you need both. Without short term selling you can’t feed yourself to realize long-term selling.
So if we close a deal today great! If not, we must ask ourselves, out of my work today with whom did I speak that would appreciate my call in a few weeks or months. Who is the best out of the bunch that makes me act – I should have a look at his or her website and offer a different proposal.
It is also likely that the offer you made today was turned down only because of timing. If you make a call to the same person sometime in the future the deal will close (the long term thinking sale).
What’s going on in the conversation to allow such subtle navigation of accepting a “no” today for a “yes” later? It’s all about your sales skills. It’s about the conversation and your awareness of the conversation. In the Zen of sales, you are both the seller and the observer of the sale. Your mind is providing you feedback that is only possible by being relaxed yet energized. When you are engaging someone in a conversation you are picking up all verbal and nonverbal cues. You are navigating your sales pitch (the script) and adding to it. While you do this you are setting up your prospect to either say yes today or yes tomorrow. You can do this because you know your product, you believe in your product, you know your prospect, and you know the product can help them.
Remember, the Zen of Sales is not like the Zen of Relaxation; in the Zen of Sales there is a sword in your hand, a tempered steel blade that cuts through everything it meets. This sword is you.
Reaching goals is not a measure of our character; it is only a measure of how often and how well we tell ourselves we want something.
David Howse can be reached at 403-991-8863.
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