I don’t know of a top-performing salesperson who doesn’t have an abundance of belief; in themselves, their solution, or their company.

On the other hand, there are thousands of sales reps out there who are in dire need of it. I will say unequivocally that it’s the biggest single obstacle in the way of anybody who thinks they can perform better.

On today’s episode, I welcome the one and only King of Sales, Jeffrey Gitomer.

His is the voice I consistently hear in my head when I think about salespeople and their belief systems, and I’m thrilled to bring that voice to you today.

Your belief in yourself is what drives you when the going gets tough. It’s a rudder in turbulent waters. If you don’t have a clear understanding of why you want to help the people you’re helping with the solution you have, then you have to ask yourself if you’re in the right place.

It’s officially September, which means it’s unofficially the end of one of the strangest business summer seasons I can remember. While it certainly feels like a recession in many ways, several economic markers would allow one to disagree. 

For all of the sentiment out there about companies being a lot more tight-fisted with their cash (I see a lot of it), most of the companies I’ve spoken with have been doing quite well.

“Sales management is the fine art of balancing encouraging the heart and kicking the ass.” -Donnie Williams

Right now there’s a sales manager assuming that their comp plan is doing their job for them. They’re failing.

I know you want to be easy to work for. I know you don’t want to be a micromanager, but that isn’t a permission slip for being uninvolved.

There are so many misconceptions about qualifying your opportunities. I get that if you chase every potential lead, you’re wasting a lot of time. You need to protect your time and reserve it for the most valuable activities, but the way you make sales is by having sales conversations. You're probably talking yourself out of a lot of those opportunities.

The more time you can speak to potential customers, the better you will be in tune with your marketplace. That expertise will absolutely translate into more sales. 

Here’s where I think most reps go wrong.

Clients complain to me all the time about how their team isn’t winning enough new business. They’re hitting their numbers, they just aren’t winning enough new accounts.

I ask what the comp plan looks like…

“Well…”

When I get these complaints, I immediately stand up for the sellers. They’re not lazy, and they’re not subordinate. When it comes to what you want them to do and what you’re actually paying them to do, which path do you expect they’re going to choose?

Sales leaders are not providing direction or doing enough to simplify the processes. In short, they’re not creating a conducive selling environment.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else's frameworks, but let me tell you what happens when you take them too literally.

Playbooks, scripts, and call plans are all valuable. They still need relevant context.

There need to be people in your organization who are setting examples for how to use these tools effectively, and preferably in more than one way. Sales reps, especially those with less experience, need to see these plans in action in such a way that they can see themselves using them.

Weak salespeople will tell you they don’t have time to prospect because they have too many other things to do. There are accounts to manage and clients to keep happy. You wouldn’t want them to lose hard-earned business would you? The CRM needs to be updated and there’s a team meeting coming up in just over an hour. The list goes on.

My first day in sales was August 12, 2004, so this past Friday marked my 18th anniversary. That sounds like a long time, except I can’t imagine doing anything else, so in that way it doesn’t feel like any time at all.

I’ve been asked a few times what I would tell a younger version of myself who is just getting into the field. So I decided to write him a letter.

Prospecting can be simple if you’ll only let it.

Ignore the distractions. Remember the fundamentals still work and have worked forever.

Prospecting is not an improvisational exercise simply repeated over and over. It’s a well-orchestrated campaign with a beginning and a logical conclusion. If you’re not approaching it this way, you’re setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment.

I spoke with a prospect this week about how his team is getting enough meetings, but they’re not leading to enough real opportunities.

“A third of the meetings we get are BS. My reps want to ensure they’re doing what they’ve been told, but many of these never even turn into second meetings.”

Can you realistically spend the majority of your time at work doing your job?

There is a lot of prep work that goes into the prospecting process. You need to know whom you’re trying to reach, how you’re going to get a hold of them, how to organize your data, and plan your approach. It’s startling to me how many companies I work with leave it up to their reps to do all this work on their own.

Today’s episode is a replay from the archives of the Deeper Thought podcast.

I sat down with Andy Racic to discuss whether or not prospecting is all about luck. Andy starts by writing about how his mom would pay him for finding four-leaf clovers the yard when he was a kid.

Front-line sales management is the most challenging job in the sales organization. It’s coming at you from all angles. You’re responsible for several reps, which means, at the very least, you’re overseeing several books of business, and you’re probably required to travel a bit. So you’ve got more responsibility with less direct control over the outcome.

Prospecting is not a one-time event. At the very least, it’s a campaign; while the very best insist it’s a lifestyle.

For a lot of sellers, the expectation is that you're supposed to pick up the phone, deliver the perfect message at the perfect time to the perfect person, and make a sale.