You can’t make a sale until you make contact with a customer.
That’s a fact, no way around it.
Sales is a contact sport.
With that being the case, why is it so many salespeople want to fight the premise that sales is a contact sport and leave all of their selling completely to something as cold as email or social media postings?
If we’re not making contact with the customer, there is little hope of being able to close a sale.
If all you’re interested in is “base volume” at ever decreasing margins, then fine, go ahead and go for zero interaction. Just make sure you are willing to settle for the business that simply comes in via the Internet or other means.
Challenge is if we in sales are not out there securing incremental business, there is little need for us. To achieve this, we have to be in contact with customers.
How else are we going to truly understand their needs and how we can help them?
How can we develop confidence and trust with the customer without contact? We can’t if we don’t have contact.
This is why I can’t stand two types of salespeople:\
1. Salespeople who spend all of their time gathering information and “preparing” to prospect, but never actually engage with the prospect.
2. Salespeople who believe if they just pepper prospects with unsolicited emails, they will get the business they need.
Are you guilty of being one of those two? Maybe not 100%, but my guess is almost every salesperson has at least shades of one or both.
Sales is about engaging the customer — making the call, whether it be by telephone or in-person.
It’s time we quit using excuses. I’ve heard all of them! It’s time we embrace that sales is a contact sport and it’s our job to make the contact!
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
