The self help guru’s are the best at teaching, “You are what you believe. Your thoughts determine your outcomes and actions. And what you think about most will manifest in your life.”
These guru’s are right and many salespeople and sale managers still subscribing to old beliefs and ways of selling do not serve them well in the information age.
Prospects are smarter, well armed with information and detect sales techniques quickly. They don’t enjoy sales meetings that seem like a role play. Prospects want salespeople that are the real deal and real smart.
Here are three beliefs to check and change if you’d like to enjoy better results from sales in 2012.
#1: You can only expect people to stay with your company for a short amount of time.
Business owners and sales managers are told by the experts that the alphabet generation, X, Y, and M (millennials), are different than the boomers. They are motivated to stay in a position for only two years. Then they will move onto the next opportunity and throughout their career enjoy approximately 14 different jobs.
Here’s a tip that will make you money immediately. Let your competitor hire this traveling group of salespeople. The numbers show that a short tenure by a salesperson is not a profitable business model.
Let’s walk through the numbers. You hire a new salesperson and even with the best on-boarding and training process, it takes about six months to get her up to speed. She must learn the business, fill the sales pipeline and close business. According to the job hopping experts, you now only have one and half years for that salesperson to produce revenue for your company before moving on. The formula doesn’t make sense. Most top sales producers hit their stride after two years. By then, they’ve built relationships, referrals are coming in and repeat business is in place.
Look around at the most successful people you know. Are they job hoppers or job committers? Bill Gates, Warren Buffet……even Mark Zuckerberg. What would have happened to Facebook if Zuckerberg would have followed the trend to explore another opportunity after two years? You can bet they wouldn’t be getting ready for one of the country’s biggest IPO’s.
Business owners: Don’t lower your expectations or standards. There are salespeople out there, of all generations, with longevity in their resume. Change your beliefs and expectations. You will be amazed at who shows up at your company’s door step.
#2: Buyers are Liars:
This belief creates an interesting scenario for a sales professional. ...
