Is the salesperson you rely on to meet your goals (perhaps it’s you!) maniacally methodical? After running a company for almost 20 years whose primary focus is to get our clients in the door with their important prospects (Door Opener® Service), that’s what we’ve learned it takes to be most successful.
Can you be successful without this level of attention to detail? Yes.
Can you be optimally successful without it? No.
Someone who is maniacally methodical finds it painful to skip over the next sales task on the list, difficult to hit send on the proposal without a final review for typos/grammar and incomprehensible not to keep detailed notes because information a prospect shares today may be the exact nugget needed to close a sale 6 months later.
One time a decision maker at a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company was on my client’s “please get me a meeting” wish list. For two years the prospect and I spoke, but each time I was told how happy she was with her vendor and that her needs were completely covered. I knew she was a good prospect and there was a lot of opportunity. I continued reaching out with important information and additional reasons why meeting my client would be the best decision she made.
One day I was making calls and got to her name on the list. I remember thinking to myself, “At what point should I give up? What sane person would continue trying after all this time?” I couldn’t bring myself to skip over her on the list. I’m a maniacally methodical person. I made the call and this time her answer was different. She said, “Things have changed with our vendor and we are now ready to meet.” Had I skipped that call on that day, my client wouldn’t have had the meeting and wouldn’t have won the business.
The moral of the story is this…being maniacally methodical pays off in sales and it will help you achieve optimal success. Of course, you must first be sure that the prospects on whom you spend your valuable time are the right, A-level prospects, with oodles of the right kind of opportunity. And, you must also be certain that when you communicate with these decision makers (or their assistants) your words are relevant, compelling and personalized just for them. After that it’s just a matter of time. Some will say yes right away, some in 3 months, some in a year and some in 2 years. Having prospects at different stages in coming into your sales funnel creates a robust and healthy pipeline.
This is where too many sellers fall down. They lay the initial foundation for relationships with prospects and then abandon the process too soon if there is not an immediate need. This leaves a very ripe situation when the prospect is ready for an eager competitor to walk in and scoop the sale.