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The "numbers game" myth
My friend Nigel Edelshain posted some excellent comments on his blog today about the myth of sales being a so-called "numbers game." Here's my favorite part:
The dangerous part about this expression is how it gets used: "we don't need to be smart [about our prospecting]...it's just a numbers game"
In other words, by saying that sales is a numbers game, one is avoiding the responsibility of being smart about prospecting. Managers and salespeople who believe in doing "more activity" are actually being lazy by doing extra activity - they're lazy because doing more activity is taking the easy way out. It doesn't require any brain power, unlike improving and changing your activities to something more effective, which does require you to use your brain.
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: If you're not getting satisfactory results, the answer isn't to increase your activity. The answer is to change your activity to something that gets results.
Click Here to read Nigel's post
Posted by Frank Rumbauskas on January 10, 2007 | Permalink
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» Sales Is A Performance Game! from SalesSquawk
Solomon Says: Sales is NOT a numbers game, sales is a performance game. We use the numbers to measure our performance and improve! Right after I wrote the last article, I began seeing a thread through the blogosphere about sales [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 28, 2007 11:09:07 AM
Comments
Hi Frank,
I hope you can help me. I have read your book and really liked it. My problem is that I am having trouble relating it to my line of work. I am a sales/marketing coordinator for a small interior design firm. In this small town everyone is fighting for clients. There is alot of new construction going up but by the time building permits are issued, etc the i.d jobs have been taken. I need to know how to contact bankers, contractors, etc (people with the money) so that I can get in on the very beginning. We are also a furniture dealer so I also sell office furniture. The issue with this is that obviously exisisting businesses already have furniture and new businesses have made plans to furnish there new space. One good thing that has happened is that I did take your advice on emailing and have emailed neumerous businesses and got some responses and even my first client out of it. Not bad considering I've only been in this position for a month. Basically, I need to know how to get in with the money machines in my area so that I can be the first to know when something will be built. Can you help?
Posted by: talena adams | Feb 7, 2007 7:22:51 AM
