Two Sales Myths that Kill Careers
Myth #1: Sales managers and lumber sellers believe that selling is a God given or innate talent. You have it or you don’t. Many sellers try selling for awhile, and if they have only marginal success, they give up. They tell themselves, “I’m just not cut out for this sales game. I don’t have what it takes.” Some sales managers do the same thing. They try to hire “naturals”. They don’t train their sales people. The ones who get it on their own, succeed; the ones who don’t, struggle, and eventually are fired or quit, and new salespeople are hired in their place. This is a long, unprofitable way to build a sales team. There just aren’t that many “naturals” out there.
Myth #2: Time will make you a better seller. The mediocre seller who has been selling for years is more the norm than the exception. They aren’t worth firing, but they aren’t superstars either. They do a mediocre job of selling year after year. When new sellers come in and sell more than these experienced sellers do in a short period of time, they call it luck or favoritism. Or they say, “That kid’s a natural.”
These are just excuses.
Many of these long-suffering, mediocre sales people don’t understand the skills they need to increase their sales. Many of them know what they need to do to improve their sales and just don’t. Change is difficult. Some of the habits and actions we needed to be great in sales are difficult. But they must be done to succeed. Newton’s third law, “For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction”, holds true in sales. If these salespeople will change their actions they will change their results.
Want this and other sales secrets? Buy my Book Selling Lumber: Sales Secrets of a Lumber Broker and tune in each Friday at 4pm PST to the Sales Doctor Radio program. In Portland on 1410 am or around the world online at SalesDoctor.biz.