I realize that the title of this post makes a bold claim. Normally, anyone who guarantees that a system works is a fool. Nevertheless, I stand by my claim: if you’ll implement this simple, 2-step process, I will personally guarantee you success in your quest to sell more.

Before I get to the 2 steps, though, I want to warn you up front that you’re probably not going to like it. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate it. I won’t be at all surprised if some you call me names or question my intelligence, and I’m willing to forgive you in advance. Whatever you say or think about me won’t change a thing, because this is the only process that’s guaranteed to work every time.

Another warning: just beacuse this process is simple doesn’t make it easy. I’ll tell you right now that it’s not easy. In fact, it’s really, really hard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re looking for easy, you’re in the wrong industry. Go look for work as an accountant or engineer; sales isn’t for you. If you’re willing to do the work of following this process, though, the rewards can be truly great.

Are you ready? OK, then; here it is.

The Simple, 2-Step Process to Selling More is:

1. Try.
2. Repeat step 1 until you get the desired result.

That’s it. Nothing fancy or complicated. No additional education or certification required. Just try, and when what you’re doing doesn’t work the way you think it should, try something else. Stop looking for Magic Bullets and Secret Formulas. The secret to selling more isn’t in the latest fad sales book or the Guru of the Week’s training class; it’s in you. You’re willingness to keep trying until you find what works for you is the biggest secret to sales success.

Here’s the truth about sales: while the fundamentals of a good sales process are the same everywhere you go, the devil is in the details, the subtle differences that make the combination of you, the product you sell and the company that you represent unique. The sum of those three variables dictates what works and what doesn’t in any given market.

The good news is that there is a place where the three intersect and sales happen; the bad news is that no one can tell you where that place is. You have to find it on your own. The other bad news is that you only have control over one of the variables: you. And so you have to experiment. If you’re working from a solid foundation of character and a commitment to the selling process, you’re starting from a good place; the rest is just experimentation.

Let’s break this down a little more. To start with, every sales process has to include some kind of prospecting, right? But who can say how that prospecting should be conducted in your unique situation? There is no one answer; what effective prospecting looks like for you is going to be different than what it looks like for me. So what do you do? You go try something. Maybe it’s telemarketing. Maybe it’s door-to-door canvassing. Maybe it’s starting conversations at a Chamber mixer. Just try something, and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Same goes for qualifying, presenting and conversion.

The fact is that nobody can tell you what’s going to work for you; you have to find out on your own. You have to be willing to try. And if you’re willing to follow this 2-step process for the rest of your career, I GUARANTEE that you’ll sell more.

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Here’s a different perspective for you: I think that a successful sales career is based less on your ability to get people to say “Yes” and more on your ability to get to “No” faster and more often.

Unless you want to be the kind manipulative salesperson that everyone loves to hate, you can’t really “get” someone else to say yes.  If you were one of those types, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article to begin with.  Those kind of mouth-breathing bottom feeders are not typically the kind to hang out here, trying to become a better caliber of salesperson.  They’re more likely to spend their time on “yellow-highlighter” pages, learning the latest mind-control sales tips.

If you’re here, reading posts by the likes of Skip Anderson and Tibor Shanto and Cindy King (and all the other incredible minds that hang out here on the SBU), I’m guessing it’s because you want to be the kind of salespeson that’s admired and respected by your employers, peers and customers.  If that’s true, you have to become a master of getting people to say “No” as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Why?  Because in most cases the alternative to “No” is not “Yes”; it’s one of the 1001 variations of “Maybe” that prospects  learn in “Sales Avoidance” class.

We all know that getting to “Yes” is the ultimate goal in a sales situation.  ”Yes” is what pays the bills.  ”Yes” is what makes all the “No”s worthwhile.  ”Yes” is what we dream of at night.  ”Yes” is every salesperson’s favorite word, no doubt about it.  It’s just that hearing it is such an infrequent occurence, compared to the number of times we hear “No”, that we sometimes fall into the trap of believing that “Maybe” is a good substitute.

Hear this: “Maybe” is not your friend.  In fact, “Maybe”, left unchecked, will kill your career.  ”Maybe” will keep you guessing indefinitely and chasing opportunities that have the same likelihood of converting to sales as my chances of winning on American Idol.

You know what I’m talking about: you make your presentation and the prospect says, “Thanks for your time…We need to think it over,” and off you go, thinking you’ve actually got a shot.  You call in a few days to “follow up” and the prospect says they are still thinking things over.  You call back after a few more days, and you get voicemail.  You leave a message, it never gets returned, and you just keep up the illusion, all the while telling your manager that you’ve got a “really good feeling” about this one.  Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if the prospect had just said “No”?

Of course it would.  It would have freed you up to go after all the other thousands of prospects out there who actually want to buy your product from you.  It would have prevented all that frustrating wheel-spinning.  It would have made you a better saleperson because it would have caused you to analyze what you could have done differently to improve your chances at getting a “Yes” next time out.

Want to be a better salesperson?  Stop obsessing about “Yes” and never, under any circumstances, settle for “Maybe”.  Instead, become a master of getting to “No” better, faster and more frequently.  Because believe me, the more times you here “No”, the closer you are to hearing “Yes”.

And if you want to become a master of getting to “No”, check out my blog over the coming week.  I’m going to be posting a series called “5 Ways To Get the 2nd Best Answer”, all about mastering the art of “No”.  Come on over and learn to love the sound of “No”!

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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!

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