Growing up, my parents, well really my Dad, bought me copies of Scientific American. This magazine is dry and dusty, filled with intricate studies, detailed analysis, and all kinds of goodness about minute areas of interest and cool scientific studies.
One of the first issues I ever read was all about how cockroaches avoided getting squished. It turns out that these crafty little critters have small hairs on their legs which can detect subtle changes in wind currents and when those signals hit their brain the cockroach automatically and without stopping to think reacts by moving along with the wind current.
This story fascinated me. Cockroaches never question the importance of their current activity versus the importance of moving away from danger. In other words, cockroaches assign survival as their highest instinct. And most importantly, cockroaches do not just survive; they thrive even in the toughest conditions.
I have taken a lesson from that issue and used it in my sales life. The lesson is simple, Trust Your Gut. A lot of salespeople spend their day in love with the sale they are currently trying to make. They get so focused on trying to close a single piece of business that they ignore all of the signals, subtle and not so subtle, that trouble is coming at them. Every time I ignore my gut I get (figuratively) squashed.
Your sales team knows what trouble looks, sounds, and feels like. Each salesperson you have has had bad prospects that they fought with and managed to turn into lousy clients. These lousy clients suck the profit, the energy, and the joy out of your business. As a sales trainer, I spend my days teaching my clients a system that allows them to identify trouble and defuse it before it explodes into a mess in their business.
Want to help your people learn how to make better sales and help avoid trouble?
We should talk.
Contact Matt Nettleton, Sandler Training, DTB at matt.nettleton@sandler.com or 317-695-8549.
