Sales Blog with Sales Tips

One of the things about sales that makes it both difficult and interesting is the paradoxes. Paradoxes are things that appear one way but in practice behave just the opposite. An example would be, “The best things in life are free.”

First, Some Preliminary Information About A Current Sales Paradox
We all know the difference between transactional and consultative selling. Transactional selling typically involves very short sales cycles and minimal customer relationships. Selling a car is normally considered a transactional sale. Consultative selling is just the opposite. It usually requires a long sales cycle and  deeper customer relationships. Selling commercial real estate would be an example.

All of us sell somewhere along the continuum of transactional to consultative sales.

The Paradox
The following may sound completely counter-intuitive, but many sales professionals tend to turn to transactional sales techniques, regardless of what they are selling, during both recessions and boom times. That’s right. We frequently default to task oriented transactional selling during good economic times and bad economic times. This is true whether we’re selling mops or Boeing jets. And it’s never a good thing to become a pure transactional sales professional.

Why Does This Happen?

• During the boom times, like we experienced in the late 90’s, most of us found that we were very successful in our sales.  Who wasn’t?  We also had very little time on our hands. The reason we had such limited time is that we were busy taking orders. As a result, many of us spent insufficient time building partnerships with our customers. Whether we’re selling widgets or space shuttles, this is transactional selling. We’re simply reacting to our customers.
• During recessionary times the orders aren’t coming in so easily anymore.  What does any good sales professional do when this happens? We prospect. In fact, we can become somewhat obsessed with prospecting, to the point where we are merely going through the motions and treating it like a task.  We’ve replaced quality with quantity. When we treat contact with prospects like a task we become mechanical. This absolutely kills our ability to initiate and nurture relationships. We have, without even realizing it, turned into transactional sales professionals. We can do this even if we are selling products and services that usually require long sales cycles and highly developed relationships with customers. In a way, we panic.

Sales Blog Rx
What we sell will affect the types of transactional or consultative sales techniques we use; there is no black or white here. It is a continuum.  However, regardless of what we are selling, we never want to become a pure transactional sales professional. We are selling in a recession currently and our natural reflex is to pound the phone and prospect like a machine. This can be ineffective and frustrating for sales professionals on many levels.

Our heads are screaming to work fast and take shortcuts right now.  We need to prospect, but we also need to qualify our prospects carefully and spend the necessary time to develop a relationship with them.   This will set us apart from the multitude of sales calls the prospect is getting from our competitors. It will also enable us to plant the seeds of relationship that are essential for a partnership.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

The career of most sales professionals at each employer follows a predictable life cycle. This life cycle doesn’t apply to every sales professional at every company, but it applies to many.

Why There Is A Life Cycle
There is a foreseeable life cycle because of three primary reasons:

• Sales professionals are generally dynamic people by their nature. They get bored with routine and trivial task-oriented work. Eventually, almost every sales job seems to feel this way if there is no intervention.
• Many employers unknowingly are the cause of this life cycle. Treating sales professionals as “coin operated,” never changing anything about their job, and creating no job growth opportunities are examples of management behaviors that nurture this life cycle.
• Sales, if nothing else, is a work/reward occupation. If a salesperson believes the earning potential at his or her current employer is not in line with the amount of effort required, he or she will frequently look for greener pastures.

The 10 Sequential Steps Of The Life Cycle

1. New sales employees are enthusiastic and don’t know their limitations. They haven’t learned the limitations of their new employer either. Everything is possible. They achieve early success as a result.
2. They land some good accounts and get into the rhythm of things while still working on business development as time permits.
3. Things are going well; it’s time to start pacing themselves. They feel there is no need to prospect anymore. They’re regularly hitting their sales budget and their account base is firmly established.
4. They eliminate most of their “C” accounts because they’ve done a good job of developing their “A” and “B” accounts.
5. They drop many of their “B” accounts because they have substantially expanded their “A” account business. They don’t have time to service any customers (either old or new) other than their handful of “A” accounts.
6. They lose some of their “A” accounts with a significant negative impact on their sales and commissions.
7. Replacing the lost “A” accounts doesn’t sound too appetizing to them. The idea of prospecting to rebuild lost business and the thought of dealing with “B” and “C” accounts again is unacceptable to them.
8. They blame their employer and their employer blames them for their current situation.
9. They find a new sales job.
10. Go to step one.

Do You See Yourself?
I’ve been through this life cycle myself a few times. I’ve seen it in others a hundred times. However, most sales professionals have the ability to stop at step two and enjoy a prolonged and profitable sales career for both themselves and their employer. Where are you on steps 1 – 10?

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

The US Coast Guard takes care of the 5,000 buoys that protect shipping and military operations around the coastline of the US. It’s a tough and unending job.

When they routinely service these buoys, they position the buoy so that it is in the lee of the Coast Guard ship. Positioning the ship in this manner blocks the wind and waves, making it easier to service these huge buoys.

A Challenge
As you might guess, holding the ship’s position is difficult while repairing these buoys. The men and women of these substantial vessels must not allow the ship to move more than a few feet in any direction while working on these large buoys. The crews of these ships know how to maintain position against the wind and waves; they understand the seas they are fighting against. Keep in mind that Mother Nature is doing her best to make things difficult, often with unrelenting 15-foot waves and 40 mph winds.

An Even Bigger Challenge
To maintain the position of these large Coast Guard ships in virtually calm seas is actually more difficult than when the seas are agitated. A paradox. The crews no longer have an enemy that is constant and predictable. They have one that is subtle, continually changing and completely unpredictable. They have to maintain position with constant rudder corrections and frequent changes to the thrust from forward to reverse and vice versa. The wind blows one direction one second and another direction the next. The waves follow along in a constantly changing dance.

Selling In Tranquil Versus Convulsing Seas
Holding a ship in perfect position in calm seas is precisely like selling in a robust economy. There is no recession or other challenge to sharpen and focus our selling tactics and strategies when things are red hot. We typically make two major mistakes when the economy is booming, both of which hurt us when things slow down – and how well we know that economies do slow down.

1. We become transactional sales professionals. We are too busy taking orders to develop relationships. We are too busy processing orders to develop a customer’s potential.
2. We stop prospecting. We’re too busy with the business we have. Who has time to look for new customers?

The Price We Pay
I guess I don’t need to tell you that sales professionals who become order takers and stop prospecting in the good times pay a deep price in environments like were selling in now. Their customer base erodes along with important customer relationships. Customers and relationships are just what they’ll need when the economy eventually slows.

Sales Tips Rx
Right now, in a recession, we know exactly what we need to do to hold our position; it’s straightforward. We must fight for new business, leverage and develop our customer relationships, and work hard to sell additional products and services. We’re selling in a recession; we can easily understand the wind and waves. It’s anything but calm out there.

In the near future when the economy is booming again, don’t forget this lesson. Continue to prospect and build relationships for when the seas are silent again and we lose direction. The weather always changes.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer