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I’m a big believer in sales training, but it often leaves out an important, yet not very sexy, fundamental.

If you’ve been in sales for awhile you’ve been exposed to the following training: closing strategies, steps in a sale, making good first impressions, etc. I call this kind of training “sales step training” because it focuses on very clear-cut steps in the sales process and preaches that some of the steps are much more important than others. Normally whatever sales step is being taught at the moment is deemed to be the most important step in the sales process.

While this model is convenient in the classroom, it really doesn’t translate that well to the real world of selling. I can just see the experienced sales professionals nodding their heads in agreement. Sales is not simple and nothing in the sales process is that concrete.

One of the sales steps that is radically overrated in my opinion is the close (more on this in the next post). The fact is, if you have managed everything properly in the sales process, then the close is just the last part of the process. I like to think of the sales process as links in a chain. Meeting the prospect is the first link in the chain and the last link in the chain is the close.

The chain analogy to the sales process is a good one because each link is the same size and is equally important. You break one link and the sales process falls apart, regardless of where it occurs. If we’ve done an outstanding job of managing the sales process but forget a simple thing like returning a couple of phone calls to the prospect, we stand a good change of losing the sale. Each link is very important.

Most salespeople love doing high profile presentations to prospects. We get back to the office after a successful performance feeling higher than a mountain. We run into our manager’s office and remind them of what a great salesperson we are. But getting the order is in the details. While our great presentation skills may have wowed the prospect initially, it’s our follow-through on all the routine elements that will ultimately get us the order. Break a link in a chain, no matter where it occurs, and the chain is broken.

Remember that prospects think you and your company are probably never going to be more conscientious than you are prior to closing an order. They are looking at each and every link in your chain for breaks. If you ignore what you think is a trivial detail in the sales process, you may have just handed the prospect a chain cutter.

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Tags: Prospecting, prospects

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