Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins. Unfortunately, left to their own devices, far too many don't develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making.
Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective i.e. "Oh yes, I'll get that order, he likes me" because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up dancing around with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance floor, i.e. the sale. In this scenario, the prospect has complete control.
This lack of a plan is often fatal, because as recent research from The Results Corporation PLC shows:
60 percent of clients buy after five "No's" and yet …
44 percent of salespeople give up after the first "No"
22 percent after the second "No" and
14 percent after a third "No"
When their efforts don't pay off immediately, even experienced salespeople tend to become discouraged. They spend more and more time struggling to meet their sales quotas and working less and less efficiently.
