The good news is that most entrepreneurial managers know that their only solution to this economic mess is to drive hard on the revenue line. The bad news is that many of these same driven entrepreneurs have trouble distinguishing effort from effectiveness.
Theirs is the common cry of “Sell harder!” “Harder” implies that better results must come from more effort. The logic is that if we just make more sales calls, send out more e-mail blasts, refuse to take “no” for an answer, that all this activity will produce higher revenues. The sad part is that this is a costly delusion, one that confuses process with technique, well intentioned effort with much needed results.
Previously we talked about structured selling and how this process can be used to significantly enhance the probability of sales success by focusing on and measuring improvement in each one of a buyer’s decision steps.
Within each one of these process steps there are a myriad of tried and true techniques that can and should be employed. Successful use of these techniques allows the process to take the traditional model of a sales funnel with its inherent diminishing flow and turn it into more of a pipe. In a pipe virtually everything that goes in at the top (e.g. leads) comes out at the bottom (e.g. sales). This is the goal for sales efficiency. Efficiency is the result of technique effectiveness inside the process steps.
Unfortunately, many mistakenly apply the concept of technique improvement only on that stage of a sale known as “the close.” In the not too distant past, there were a number of providers of training tapes, films, books, seminars, etc., that provided “guaranteed sales improvements” if only one adopted their closing “techniques.” These techniques had names. From the “puppy dog close” to “the yes list” to the “Step on their neck” approach, all were founded on a planned manipulation of a victim, namely the buyer.