Effort

You would think that I wouldn’t have to start with a topic that we assume is covered. Effort is a non topic. Effort is a default check off. It’s not…really. I’m not sure that there is an element of selling that is more important than effort…trying.

I’m not a trained mental health provider nor am I a mind reader, but I am acutely aware that there are a lot of salespeople who don’t give their best effort. Their “try” meter is floating somewhere between zeros and unacceptable.

I’ll give you that there are circumstances that get in the way of doing one’s best. A salesperson could be overmatched by their subject, the market, the competition, or by a bad environment at work or home. I am inclined to be sympathetic to salespeople who can’t perform because circumstances out of their control.

The good news for salespeople with out of control issues that interfere with selling is that they can get in control of their circumstances. Identify, isolate and fix the problems. If it means changing employers or industry focus, just do it. It’s probably best to go easy on the personal side, but to still identify, isolate and fix what’s hurting your career and interfering with your ability to give your best effort.

I can’t be too easy on salespeople who don’t try. I don’t understand them. They almost certainly have a laundry list of excuses.

There is an 80/20 rule in this world. If you take a good look at your organization, you’ll see that a minority of your staff are delivering the best results. In the sales world, some of the people are making most of the money, awards and recognition. The others wonder why. Many of them are aware of their own barriers to success.

A salesperson doesn’t have to be a racehorse to win. A calm deliberate execution of a sales plan and process with a sufficient number of sales activities using acquired knowledge and skills and the tools of the trade will produce excellent results for anyone in the business. They just need to care. They need to try.

Mark Thelen was one of my favorite sales trainers. I went to see Mark quite a few times. He reduced the lessons of selling to the lowest common denominators. On effort his take was simple…”No sales calls equal no sales, some sales calls equal some sales, lots of sales calls equal lots of sales”. Thank you for your wisdom Mark. I couldn’t have said it better.