It Takes Much More Than a Sales Deck to Make a Good Salesperson!

It’s become quite apparent to me that many salespeople have lost their hunger and appetite for hard work! Except for possibly the “lead gen” folks and “data analysis” groups. They’re relentless!

So, kudos for not stopping, but maybe it’s time to come up with something new and more effective than the models I have spent countless hours reviewing lately.

Besides redundancy, they often are ill prepared for the meeting and only reiterate what their decks already explain. Very few can go into any depth on their technology or success rates. And God forbid if you ask them for a handful of references, it’s often game over!

I’m starting to believe there is a conveyor system somewhere cranking out sales clones, day after day, flooding the market looking for new sales but saying very little that is intriguing or engaging. And I just despise those cold calls who don’t bother to ask if I’m busy or not, but just start rambling the minute I say hello. I can’t tell you how rude that is and what an immediate turn off it is to me!

Lists are great, data is awesome, but sales are still a personal connection industry and many of these folks have lost complete sight of that! They’re as impersonal as the software or dashboard they are selling.

Selling widgets is easier. You basically like or dislike the product and can easily see the benefit of it. Then you simply need to decide whether the widget satisfies a problem you have. That isn’t the case with specialty sales. You need to know your clients, understand their individual problems, and have a clear explanation with definitive answers how you can assist them to continue to move forward.

As the industry advances it needs to remember when selling services to an agency, means that your clients are agencies and people still work at those agencies. No different than when an agency works with a client. You need to get to know, understand and relate to your partners.

And if I hear the excuse why they can’t answer a reasonable question with the answer, “that they can’t because it’s proprietary information” again, I think I’m just going to just hang up! And for those people who won’t take the answer, “let me think about it” and insist on scheduling a meeting at that moment or for me to make a multi thousand-dollar decision on the spot, please STOP! You’re neither intimidating or someone I will ever want to do business with.

As our industry moves forward and becomes more technical what we can’t afford to lose sight of is the human factor. We are simply boiling down people to statistics and profiles but until we don’t bleed any longer, we are still people and if COVID taught us anything, it taught us how important personal connections are!

Maybe technology will become more and more helpful, but it will never replace the spontaneity or individualism of acting human. In fact, maybe that is why all this data isn’t always as beneficial as the folks selling it would like you to believe.

So, the next time someone text or emails me something impersonal or generic, please just sit by your cell and wait for my call. You’ll have plenty of time to do almost anything because it won’t be coming!