As a kid, I spent more than my fair share of time laying in a small meadow near my house watching clouds roll by. I enjoyed seeing the moths flit from flower to flower. Although I was relaxing, those moths were working to pollinate the flowers. What I was actually seeing was a good example of "co-evolution." Co-evolution is the relationship between two species that have mutually evolved to work together. And little did I know, it is very common for moths to co-evolve with the flowers they pollinate.
One of the best examples of this is the yucca plant and the yucca moth. They operate as an exclusive pair. The female yucca moth lays her eggs in the yucca plant flowers, doing this pollinates the plant, it also protects the caterpillars as they grow in the seeds of the plant. The plant loses a few seeds to caterpillars but gets pollinated. The yucca moth is the only animal that is able to pollinate yucca flowers. And the yucca plant is the only flower the yucca moth is able to pollinate.
As a sales trainer, I hear owners and managers complain about people who just don't get it. They talk about salespeople unable to produce results and they lament their inability to coax their people into adequate prospecting behavior. "It's a numbers game," they tell me and I shake my head, "No." It's true that you need to have an adequate number of calls and conversations but professional selling is not about numbers--professional selling is all about accuracy.
I quickly discovered that these business owners rarely take the time to identify the type of prospect they best match. They fail to identify their typical, ideal, or acceptable prospects. And they also fail to identify the type of salesperson they have. They simply send their salespeople out in the hope that high levels of hysterical activity in the market will pollinate something leading to a new sale, a new relationship, and some profit for the business. The more accurate and on-target you are in your sales prospecting, the less time you waste delivering ineffective messages to incorrect prospects.
Want more information on how we help our clients achieve clarity about their prospects, their sales people, and their odds of success?
We should talk.
Contact Matt Nettleton, Sandler Training, DTB at matt.nettleton@sandler.com or 317-695-8549.
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