Recently I was talking with several very capable salespeople. Each one has had success and each one demonstrated a positive attitude.
At one point in our discussion, we were talking about volume opportunities for the next 12 months.
One salesperson immediately jumped in and stated how he expected to achieve “x” growth.
I asked him why and he said he came to that number based on the growth he had experienced in the previous 12 months.
Sounds logical and a typical way a lot of salespeople would project what their business might do.
I asked the salesperson to share what he felt his probability was of hitting that number. He said, “Good! I think I should be able to do it.”
I then asked him if the number was a good goal and if his target should be actually considerably higher. He looked at me and immediately asked, “Why?”
He went on to say how his company would be very happy with the growth he was expecting to achieve and the number would put him at the top of the pack for another year.
That was all I needed to hear to start getting in his face by asking him if the number he was shooting for was based more on what was going to look good and be comfortable to achieve.
He didn’t argue with me, which then had me asking him to think deep about his business potential and to start laying out all of the opporutnities he had and what it would take to close them.
Bingo!
In just a few minutes, the salesperson who thought basing his goal on past performance was good enough suddenly had a much larger number he now felt he should be pursuing.
In fact, the more he brainstormed, the more he realized how much business potential he had overlooked in the previous 12 months.
Do you see something here?
We far too often allow our own beliefs to dictate what we can or cannot do. We tend to base our beliefs on what we can see or have experienced, failing to take into consideration what opporutnities really exist.
Where have you limited your potential based on your beliefs?
We are own worst enemies far too many times. We fail to really look at what we are capable of doing.
Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
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