My wife and I spent a week at the beach last month and made friends with a couple sitting under the umbrella next to us. We got to know Bill and Nina over a few days and found out that Nina was a former pharmaceutical sales manager… so she and I really hit it off.
During one of our ‘sales discussions,’ she told me about a former sales rep that reported to her who had all of the tools, skills, and personality to be wildly successful… but wasn’t. And as Nina told this rep, “You’re failing because of the front door.”
What she meant by that was that all of that talent and potential mean nothing if the sales rep doesn’t walk out the front door every day to work… to talk to and sell to doctors.
Now, we’re not selling to doctors and we’re not often visiting sales prospects and clients in person, but that adage is still spot on. Ask yourself… are you doing the things necessary for sales success? Are you making [enough] phone calls, sending [enough] emails, engaging [enough] on social media, networking with [enough] people at conferences and so on?
I believe deeply that professional sales – the kind that happens in our industry – is about building relationships. That buyers won’t buy from you until they get to know you, then like you, then trust you. And that takes time. It also takes a lot of activity and touch points. And that means [metaphorically] getting through the front door and connecting with buyers.
It’s one of the first sales principles that we teach in the Seller-Doer Workshop™… that ‘Activity Breeds Results.’ The more you do… the more success you’ll have.
So, walk out that front door and get to work!