This editorial is from Lucky Chuhan, one of TPI’s newest salesman with lots of experience under his belt. Lucky discusses the importance of persistence in sales, especially when it comes to improving your business’ bottom line:
Sales, what are sales? Sales are the beat of your company’s lifeline. The secret to sales is persistence. While sales jobs can be incredibly challenging, getting a sale is rewarding. Persistence is key.
A sale is merely a transaction. It can be an exchange of currency for a product/service, but in most cases, it’s relationship building. While you read this on your iPhone, iPad, android or other smart device, you realize you have a relationship built with the OEM. They sold you once, now every other year you might continue to buy their products or services. Without that persistence or those reminders, this relationship can become less important to you, which is something to keep in mind when selling your own services.
Let’s say you bought your first Peterbilt 12 years ago and when it breaks down, you don’t just think about getting rid of it, you look for parts specific for your truck. You call the manufacturer, and you trust they have what you are looking for.
But what happens when the manufactures dealers do not have your part? You do a Google search and locate your part. You call the organization that has your part advertised online and ask for a price/quote. As a salesperson, you receive this request or in other words called a “lead”. You provide the lead with an estimate and the potential buyer decides to purchase and that is great, but what happens the lead says “NO”? Unsuccessful salespeople would end this engagement here and not pursue it any further.
At this point this is considered a “missed sale”. Missed sales are great opportunities for you to follow up on. Maybe the lead thought they could find it somewhere else. Maybe they didn’t have the funds to purchase it right then. Maybe they found one somewhere else and then called the next company, but that salesperson was rude, and so the lead did not feel like supporting a company who was rude to them (or any other variable). If you follow up on the estimate/quote, your closing ratio will increase.
When I was younger, I was referred to a terrific book written by Napoleon Hill, called “Think & Grow Rich”. There was an anecdote from said book that always stuck with me, “Three feet away from gold”. What it means is to never give up, ending the story with Darby and his uncle deciding to quit as they have spent all their resources. After they quit, the junkman that bought their equipment makes it rich, and he only had to dig 3 feet more from where Darby and his uncle left.
The main piece of advice I can provide for anyone is make slight changes to your daily habits and do not give up. For example, if you are expected to follow up on estimates/quotes and make 30 calls a day, call 31 each day for a week. Then the next week you call 32 each day. You’re not working too much harder, but those extra calls will be the difference in the bottom line.
After 2 weeks of becoming 1 percent better each week you have successfully made more calls equivalent to half a day of calls. Successful salespeople go out of their way to find an opportunity and get creative to make a sale.
If you stay focused for a year, your income plus commission can be significantly higher than originally planned, which benefits both you and your company. Don’t let go of an opportunity too early because you want to take the easy road. Keep on persisting, each “NO” will get you one step closer to the yes!
