In sales failure is inevitable. No one closes 100%. Weak salespeople run from failure and in so doing unknowingly increase their chances of failure. If you ask the tough questions up front you will determine quickly whether or not you should pursue a prospect or move on to more on to prospects you have a better chance of closing. Stock traders live by the axiom “let your winners run and cut your losses short.” The skill is in determining quickly which prospects have a high probability of closing and which ones you should “cut short”. To do this you need to risk failure by asking questions you are not comfortable with, call higher in the chain of command, etc. in short, get out of your comfort zone and stop running from failure. In sales, failure is like death and taxes … not fun things but there is no way around them. By the way, for me personally this was a tough lesson to learn when I got into sales. Because in my previous career as an engineer, we did not tolerate much in the way of failure. People get testy when bridges fall down or buildings collapse. Luckily for us salespeople, no one ever dies from a bad sales call.
Embrace Failure
February 26, 2015 by
