We’re all familiar with the old proverb, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  What we usually overlook, though, is the first part of that verse: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.”  No, this isn’t a theology lesson; it’s a universal law.  Plant orange seeds, you get oranges. Plant apple seeds, you get apples.  You never, never ever, plant almonds and get walnuts, right?  Also, we understand that each kind of seed has it’s own unique gestation period, a different amount of time between planting and harvesting.

The same is true in sales.  You’ve been reading articles all month on this blog about the importance of planting seeds now (prospecting) so that you can reap come springtime (close deals).  I’m not going to beat you up on that point any more; if you didn’t get it yet, you probably don’t belong in sales.  What I am going to do is ask you to think for just a minute about what it takes to keep yourself going during those long winter months when you’ve planted your seeds but nothing’s happened yet.

Let’s start by acknowledging that sales is one of the most frustrating career paths anyone could choose.  I know, I know, it’s also one of the most rewarding…but let’s save that conversation for another post and focus on the frustrations for a bit.  We all know the pain of going through an entire sales process only to have the prospect we’ve been courting decide not to make a change, or worse, go with a competitor.  It sucks.  All that planting of seeds and cultivating of the tree, only to find out it was all a fruitless effort.  A lot of frustration, right?  And therein lies the problem.

The Buddha said that our suffering (in this case our frustration) is caused by our resistance to what is (in this case, the fact that sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, we lose the deal we worked so hard to plant and cultivate), and he was right!  We get so tied up in the way we want things to be that we get completely sidetracked when things don’t turn out that way.  We suffer.

And what happens when we get sidetracked and frustrated, when we’re suffering?  We make the irrational decision to stop planting seeds.  In other words, we have a tendency to get out of our good sales habits when we lose a deal.  Unconsciously, we blame the process for letting us down, when in reality it’s just the nature of the game we play.

So what’s a sales rep to do?  How can you keep yourself going when you feel like dumping all your seeds in the trash can?  Here’s a little trick I learned a few years ago that’s served me very well: commit to the process, detach yourself emotionally from any specific result, and the rest will take care of itself.

Countless sales experts and studies have told us what you and I know to be true from experience: the sales process works.  No matter what you call the specific steps in your industry or organization, we all know that good prospecting efforts lead to qualifying conversations, which in turn lead to need-specific presentations, which lead to converted sales (aka the Close).

We also know that the numbers get smaller as you move through the process.  If I start by making 125 prospecting calls to land 25 appointments which lead to 5 presentations which convert to 1 new deal, I know I have a sales process and I know my numbers.  What I don’t know, and what nobody knows at the beginning, is which of those 125 prospecting calls will lead to the 1 new deal.  In other words, I can’t shortcut.  I have to make all 125 calls, go on all 25 appointments, create and deliver all 5 proposals, all without any idea which one will finally become a new customer.  And that’s perfectly OK, because I know the process works.

So here’s the $1,000,000 question: do you know your numbers?  Do you know how many calls you have to make to get 1 new deal?  Do you know how long your sales cycle is (in other words, how much time will elapse between making the calls and getting the deal)?  If not, you’ve got a serious sales problem that you need to fix now.

Start by tracking everything you do.  And by “tracking”, I mean writing it down or recording it somewhere (a CRM program, a day planner, a notepad and crayons…whatever works for you).  Then, and here’s the really important part, go back and review your data so you can start to build an accurate picture of what your sales process and sales cycle look like.

Then, and only then, can you commit to the process, detach from the outcome, and still trust implicitly that the activities you perform today will lead to your results in March.  You’ll see that universal law in action: what you so today, you’ll assuredly reap in the future!