Sales is competition

By James Olsen

II/E MUST compete to sell. I am Y V always surprised working with salespeople who don't want to compete. They are what I call "quotron units" or "product presenters."

The phrase "It sells itself' should be stricken from the vocabulary and, more importantly, from the mentality of every professional seller. We should replace this illusory phrase with the more appropriate "If it's to be, it's up to me," or my favorite, "If we don't sell, we don't eat"

Less Is More

Give me a salesperson with a little less personality, smoothness or charisma, but with a bit more determination every time.

I recently spoke with a brilliant salesman. He is one of the most likeable, charismatic people I have ever worked with. He is one of the best sellers, at the moment of close, thatl have ever met. I have sold side-bYside with this guy. He is great in front of the customer.

His problem is that he doesn't want to prospect. "If I could just hire someone to set up the appointments for me...." This salesperson, in spite of his enormous talent, is producing well below his potential because he lacks the discipline to prospect on a consistent basis.

To be successful in sales we must be half gunslinger and half farmer. What do I mean? Our gunslinger is our closer. Our gunslinger is our person who can communicate with manY different kinds of personalities. Our gunslinger is the one who can respond on the fly.

Our farmer is the one who shows up every day and completes the stePs of the sales process with discipline. It is rare to find both traits in one person. That's why most of us have to work at being great salespeople.

Pareto & Workaholics

Pareto's Principle states that 807o of everything in any competitive activity goes to 20Va of the people involved in that activity. Eighty percent of the fish are being caughtby 2OVo of the fishermen: 8OVo of the baskets in the NBA are scored by 20Vo of the players;2\Vo of the flower shops are selling 80Vo of the flowers. Given that sales is a competitive field, SOVo of the business is going to 20Vo of the salespeople. Who are those207o?

"Natural" superstars make up a small portion of this group. The "naturals" do exist. There is a segment of people who are naturally great sellers. They are about one in 60. We then have the "man-made naturals." These are the professionals who have studied the game of sales and worked on their skills until they are as good as or better than the naturals. The "man-made naturals" get another portion of the business.

Then we have the workaholics. Their technique isn't necessarily better than the rest, although they do build their skills faster than the salesperson who works less because they get a lot more practice. The real strengths of the workaholic are time and determination. If the average salesperson works 40 hours a week (it's less), the average workaholic is working 60 hours a week. Assuming closing percentages are the same, the workaholic will get 5O7o more of the business! This assumes a portioned awarding of orders. In many "all or nothing" sales environments, the percentages will be even more slanted to the workaholic.

Balance, Development, Intensity

Are we destined to mediocrity if we are not a "natural" or a workaholic? Yes, if we don't change. I believe in balance. Life is more than getting the order. But I am not in denial about who I am competing against. The very talented, very dedicated, and the overly dedicated are getting 807o of the business.

Do we have to work 60 hours a week to compete with the workaholics? No. But we will have to be disciplined and intense in our work day. We will have to work on our sales skills. We also have to be engaged while we are working. Showing up for 35 to 40 hours a week will put us in the bottom 8OVo. We must comqete. We must work on our sales techniques and disciplines to be the top 2}%o-where sales is fun and profitable.