Although every sale should be capped off by a closing, a true sale is a process and involves much more than just getting the check. A winning sale is a process in which one as a seller manages to build an excellent relationship with the client so that he buys again and again.
Many sellers with the obsession of selling now, focus on short-term sales as this is what directly impacts their immediate quotas. But this way of selling sooner or later causes more downs than ups, especially in this new global economy that we have.
It is not surprising that frustration and demotivation are generated in the commercial and staff turnover since there is a lack of a well-structured plan that also covers the medium and long term. In short, the lack of planning in sales negatively impacts the staff and the business.
The Problems Of Lack Of Planning In Sales
A real case
Not long ago I was working with a sales professional who considers himself a born salesman, exceptional, and passionate about sales. This person for several years has done very well selling and selling at great profit.
Now, from some time to date, his selling power has dropped drastically and his income has decreased accordingly. And worst of all, despite the fact that it shows hints that it can rebound, its future is very black.
This salesperson is certainly a charismatic person with a gift for words and knows how to engage and captivate not only the customer but also everyone with whom he speaks.
The approach of this seller essentially consists of making the sale of the moment without planning and without having a well-defined objective, nor an effective follow-up strategy, without having a measurement system for their sales efforts in each of the stages. of the sale. In other words, planning is not his thing as he himself says.
This salesperson told me: «I believe that the important thing is to sell and that with everything I have to do to sell, on a day-to-day basis, I don’t have the time to think about planning, although I know it is important, I am a person of action”.
Wow, these words sounded terrifying to me. Exaggerated, not so much!
It is true that the obsession with meeting sales quotas makes salespeople have a strong tendency to be extremely busy in actions that give short-term results.
However, the sales situations that arise during their day take such priority that it absorbs a large part of their time and energy and leaves them no space or clarity to be able to dedicate themselves to other activities that are important, such as planning based on priorities.
It is clear that in order to plan, you have to dedicate quality time to do it. It is true that there are also many professionals who realize this fact and get down to work to find this time.
Unfortunately, in this step, quite a few tend to fail because they seek time where there is none. Since they try to manage time with the approach that what is important is time and not priorities.
The perfect time management
From a conventional time-based view, time management could be defined as the action of allocating the time one has available to the correct activities.
And from a priorities perspective, time management is achieved effectively when activities are carried out in relation to priorities, focusing on everything that is really productive in the short, medium, and long term.
With the conventional view, it is not uncommon for many salespeople to find planning tedious to the point that it becomes a limiting belief of the type “I am not organized” or “Planning is not my thing”, etc.; because they only have time to be in actions of the moment and they even spend a lot of time putting out fires generated by everything that happens to them during the day.
The interesting thing is that these types of vendors are the ones who usually create many fire extinguishers themselves, directly or indirectly, due to their lack of planning. Paradoxical, right?
On the other hand, those who organize and carry out their sales actions based on priorities have an approach that covers not only the immediate but also gives great importance to planning.
This way of acting becomes a fundamental habit for this type of salesperson, since by planning what is really important and productive, they can foresee risky situations and take the pertinent actions before they happen and, on the other hand, promote actions that give results and maximize their efforts becoming high-performing salespeople.
They are highly productive professionals not only in bursts but over time and their sales tend to grow sustainably.
Conclusions
True success itself is a process and not an end. Hence, in order to be successful permanently, one must know which are the intermediate points and the stages of the process that must be followed and it is here where planning based on priorities with clear and motivating objectives allows us to achieve our goals.
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