Do you know what is considered a very good batting average in baseball? .300
Meaning if the player successfully gets to first base 30% of the time, he’s a keeper!
An excellent batting average? .400
So, if you’re on base 40% of the time, you might just be in line for Hall of Fame status.
Do you know what entrepreneurs expect their sales average to be for their sales calls? 100%!
And what happens if you don’t get the sale and “ruin” your batting average? How do you feel? What do you tell yourself about yourself? What do you tell yourself about your business? Does doubt start to creep (or bulldoze) in?
I have a client who is currently selling a NEW high-ticket item. She called me after her FIRST sales call for the NEW program.
She didn’t get the sale.
Feeling bummed, confused, she naturally started questioning things. She asked me if there was something she could have said or done differently.
I replied, “Nobody bats a thousand.”
And I meant it. You will not score 100% of your sales pitches. No one does! Especially when it’s something new and you’re still figuring out your sales style and process.
Now, here’s most important part of this lesson. So, please read this next line with care…
Your expectation (heck, even just your desire) to bat a thousand is what’s stopping you from getting your NEXT sale.
Mind Your Post-Call Mind
It’s amazing to me how entrepreneurs — myself included — are ready and willing to beat themselves up so quickly. We have high (and often unreasonable) expectations of ourselves right out the gate.
“I want to sell (insert audacious amount) of programs.”
“I want to hear yes right away.”
“Hearing ‘No’ means that I failed.”
Your expectations are setting you up for failure.
No one can win that game.
When you think this way, the questions you ask yourself after the unsuccessful call are, “What did I do wrong? How did I fuck it up?”
Calm down.
If you mentally and emotionally punish yourself after ever “failed” sales call, what kind of energy do you think you’re bringing into your NEXT sales call?
No wonder people generally don’t like sales if after every sale loss they anchor in negative emotions of defeat. How do you think you show up to your next call? Sheepish? Brash? Defeated from the get-go?
Your work isn’t done after you hang up the phone.
You have to take charge of your mindset after every sales call in order to make it a win.
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Stages of Every Sales Call
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Get That Marketing Mindset Right
The first mindset warning: Be careful of bringing your marketing mindset to your sales game. Sales is not marketing.
In marketing, we have algorithms, we can test, we can compare, we can do all these fancy things to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
However, sales is a relationship between two (or more) people.
In sales, you are interacting with another human being. There are a million variables of what that person is going through, what they’re thinking, what happened during their day, etc.
People are not algorithms.
Sales is a dance. You have a partner. Sales is an artform you create WITH someone else.
Ultimately, sales is learning someone else’s inner world… and everyone’s inner world is different.
That’s why you’re not going to land every sales call.
How to Make Every Sales Call a Win
Do yourself a favor and instill this new mindset.
Sales takes practice.
To clarify, this does NOT mean that it only takes practice when you’re new to sales. It means that sales takes practice for every new offering, every new target market, and every new price range.
(WARNING: next is your zen moment of the day…)
Like yoga, sales is a practice that never ends.
It takes practice with other people to really lock down your sales process. You need the experience of hearing objections that you didn’t anticipate. It takes risk and repetition to figure out your optimal angles. You need to hear the thought processes of enough people in order to discover a theme that you can build on. Then, you can dial in your sales process.
And you STILL won’t be batting 1,000.
Some of you might find that last realization painful or discouraging. My hope for you is that, instead, you find freedom in that last lesson. A lost sale isn’t a failure; it’s a part of the planned experience.
Every sales call is a step in the right direction.
Be kinder to yourself. It makes sales more fun, which means you get to finally ditch all the unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Sales is a partnership. The people you talk to for your sales call are helping you to improve your craft.
With that mindset, there’s nothing to beat yourself up about.
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