Jim Mattei

No matter what the outcome, we have to take responsibility for what has happened. Don’t become a victim. Instead understand what you can control and what you can’t control. Accept what you can’t control and put all of your energy into what you can control. This will generate successful outcomes.

I was with a couple colleagues at a conference recently and we were on our way back from dinner in a taxi cab to the hotel. We were reminiscing about past sales jobs. One of them shared with me that in the last few months of any job he had, his closing percentages always seemed to go up. When he knew he was leaving the territory, for some reason, it had a positive impact on how effective he was at closing business.

In sales it’s also easy to focus on what we don’t have. When you find yourself in this death spiral of negativity, take a step back and look at reality.

Logic suggests that “more prospects” will lead to more sales. While that may be true for some salespeople, for many others, “more prospects” actually leads to fewer sales.

Number One: Never implement more than one prospecting activity at a time (unless you’ve decided to assume the responsibility for reaching your sales goals). Being engaged in more than one prospecting activity at a time (cold calling, networking, and generating referrals, for instance) requires focus, organization, follow up, and follow through—activities that demand considerably more time and energy than sitting at your desk waiting for the next hot prospect to call you.

Can you imagine Peyton Manning saying to his coach “Why do we have to practice anymore? We’ve all been playing football for years!” Obviously he would never say that because it’s absurd! Any professional athlete constantly trains and prepares for his/her next competition. Doctors, lawyers, accountants or any other professional service provider invests time in continuing education and training. These professions demand excellence and as a result they are compensated well for it. But when it comes to sales, one of the highest paying profession in the world, do we demand the same excellence?

Preparing for a sales meeting is important. You want to be ready, organized, and thorough.

All too often, salespeople face a host of objections and delay tactics when they attempt to close a sale. It’s such a common occurrence that many sales training organizations teach courses on how to “handle” or “overcome” prospects’ stalls and objections.

Have you ever tried to motivate yourself to start a task? Did you conjure up all sorts of means, but after all the conjuring, nothing changed? You were still stuck. Except, you were also feeling guilty about having wasted more time without getting any closer to the accomplishment you were after.

If your sales manager asked you to forecast the number of sales you’ll close or the amount of sales revenue you’ll generate in the coming month, could you give him a meaningful answer? Meaningful in that it’s based on something more concrete than wishing and hoping? Most salespeople, if they are being honest, would answer “no.”