A Winning Formula for Sales Career Success

Sometimes simple truths evade us.

I recently wrote about effort. It is an absolute truth that lack of effort will prevent a sales person from achieving their potential for success. Remember, no sales calls equals no sales.

Twenty years ago, or so, I became interested in learning if there was indeed a simple formula for sales success.

As a student of selling I have tried to learn as much as possible about my profession. I have been hungry to learn secrets that give me a competitive edge. I attend seminars, reads books, listens to tapes and learns lessons from the winners and losers around me. Many of the ideas and practices taught are complex, quirky and not for me, but much of what I know and how I practice the art and science of selling is the sum of ideas and practices gleaned from these lessons and from the lessons of a career in the field, on the street, fighting for business day in and day out.

On a nutty side bar: I am fascinated by a Doctor who claims to be able to create sales stars through hypnotism. That concept is a little too edgy for me. If I endorse it I may earn “kook” status with my peers. We’ll save hypnotizing salespeople for a later date.

Back to the basics…I employed a young man who came to me with little product knowledge and limited sales skills. I instructed him to engage in a lot of sales activities ever day, without fail, while learning the ropes in our industry. He quickly began to sell more information systems than the other more experienced members on my sales team. It didn’t take long to recognize that his advantage was simply that he outworked everyone else. He made dozens of phone calls every morning, sent out dozens of letters every day, made a dozen, or so, cold calls (in person) daily, scheduled 2 – 4 product demonstrations per week and sold 2 -4 information systems a month. In reality, he neither had much product knowledge nor was he a smooth operator. He was a selling machine anyway because of his relentless effort.

Just A.S.K.

After much observation and thought. I became convinced that the following is the absolute and simple truth about the sales profession. As much as I believe that effort or "sales activity" is a key sales success element, sales skills and product knowledge are equally important elements in a successful selling career.

If all three elements are equal in value, things are probably going well for the seller. In reality, most salespeople, particularly the new bee’s have less product knowledge or selling skills than their more experienced peers. This is a normal, recurring situation that has an answer.

Just A.S.K. Dave…the simple truth

Picture a circle (or pie) with three equal pieces. These pieces are Activity, Skill and Knowledge. Let’s call this a sales career circle. If one piece is smaller than the other there is a gap that represents potential job or career failure. Not good.

The great news and hope for new, upcoming or struggling salespeople is that any area of the formula that is impeding your success can be fixed by filling the gap with another element.

If your product knowledge is limited, you can compensate for it (while you are learning the product, of course) by increasing your sales activities. What is even more encouraging is that as your product knowledge or sales skills increase, and if you maintain a high and steady number of sales activities, your theoretical career circle will expand and you will be on your way to a very successful and profitable career.