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In my career I’ve found that the most straightforward and simple things are the most effective. The following is no exception:

“Different is not always better, but better is always different.”

What does this mean and how does it apply to our sales effectiveness?

We’ve all had brief periods in our sales career where things were not going like we wanted. Sales just didn’t seem to come too easily. In fact, it felt like we couldn’t give our products or services away. Anyone that’s been in sales for more than a year or two knows exactly what I’m talking about.

But how about those times when we hit a prolonged and lengthy sales slump? We normally react to these times by soldiering on with the same sales techniques that we’ve always used, but we do them faster and harder in an effort to regain momentum. We think it’s an issue of intensity. Many times all that happens is even less sales success and increased frustration.

However, it’s not usually an issue of intensity. Sales is not just a numbers game. To get out of our slump we’ve got to change something in order to get better results. The same old recipe isn’t going to make a different cake.

While there are no guarantees that a change in sales techniques will help, we know that if we don’t make an adjustment we’ll keep getting more of the same. What are some areas that we can look at for modification?

1. Are we going after the right prospects?
2. Do we need to reach out to different levels of decision makers?
3. Are we just chasing our competitors’ accounts and not finding our own prospects?
4. Have we forgotten about cross-selling?
5. Are we contacting our customers frequently enough?

Change can be scary sometimes. We feel comfortable with what we know even though it may not be working for us. We don’t have to make adjustments to our sales techniques all at once. We can make them a little at a time. Just remember that real improvements can’t be made in our sales effectiveness unless something is done differently.

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Tags: sales advice

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