Recently I was speaking with a President & CEO of an organization who offered me the analogy that she felt her sales team was like a group of fish in a fish bowl. She said that they waited for the fish food to be sprinkled on the surface of the water and reacted well when they finally saw the food hitting the water…but when there was no food, they didn’t really do anything but swim around. This reactive approach to selling was expensive to the organization in lost opportunity cost, tepid sales results and overall inefficiency.
Today’s economic climate and challenging sales environment stagnates the reactive sales professional waiting for something to happen. The phones ring less, the flow of customers into the place of business is slower and a “just-hang-in-there” mentality pervades the reactive sales team.
However, this very same economic climate and challenging sales environment creates wonderful opportunities for the sales hunter, whose skills at proactive selling strategies, networking techniques and the ability to position his or her product or service apart from the competition creates more buying and selling opportunities. Generating top line revenue and bottom line profit in today’s market often simply hinges upon having a greater number of successful business conversations with more prospects. That won’t happen if you’re waiting for people to come to you.
Doing the things today that out-hustle, out-smart and out-flank your competition means that tomorrow you’re looking at your competition in the rear-view mirror.
Embrace the proactive selling techniques that make you stand out. Let the other guys wait for the customers to come to them.
Don’t wait for the fish food – go and get it!
Do your sales training programs prepare your sales teams to take advantage of the opportunities in today’s market?
