Your Number One Sales Challenge

It's no surprise that there are literally thousands of books on selling - after all, there is a lot to learn in order to become a top salesperson.

In fact, I never stopped learning about sales, whether it was reading books, listening to CDs, going to seminars, or attending sales training from my employer.

When looking at everything we're taught in sales, the list of skills runs the gamut -

- Prospecting

- Qualifying

- Objection handling

- Presenting

- Profit justifying

- Solution development

- Referral selling

- Follow-up

…and so much more.

In fact, just one of those subsets can be drilled down and made into an entire category of its own. Take sales closing for example - there are entire books, programs, seminars, and even entire selling systems and methodologies that revolve around closing tactics.

After all, it makes sense, doesn't it? Closing is the culmination of all selling! As I like to point out, we're not paid to prospect, or show up for meetings, or go to networking events, or even meet with prospects. We're only paid to make sales.

That's it. That's the entire concept of commission payment.

There's something that's frequently overlooked, though, and it's this: All of the closing tricks, tactics, strategies, and even real-world skills and experience won't do you any good unless and until you have someone to close!

And therein lies the #1 fallacy and the basis of all the counter-intuitive thinking that powers the world of sales and sales training: Most salespeople spend 90% of their time learning how to develop and close leads, but once they get out in the real world, 90% of their time is spent simply looking for someone to sell to!

Does that really make any sense? I don't think so.

Let's take it a step further: Let's say we have two salespeople. One is a master closer, who can sell anything to anyone without objections.

The other can't "close the lid on a jar" as the saying goes. If he happens to make a sale, it's because he got lucky and the customer was going to buy anyway.

But there's a catch: The first salesperson, the master closer, has no leads, and no reliable way of getting them. The second, the one with no selling skills, has a pile of leads on his desk and more coming in every day.

Which one will be more successful?

The answer is easy, and I know it's true from real-life experience: The second salesperson, the one with little selling skill but piles of leads, is going to make more money than the master closer who has no one to sell to. The reason is that you can't close a sale unless and until you have someone to sell to. Or, as simple math tells us, 0 x 0 = 0.

On the other hand, a certain percentage of your market will buy from you no matter what - *IF* you can manage to uncover and find those people. Or, as I teach in my systems, how to get those people to find YOU.

When you're ready to stop spending day after day frustrated because YOU don't have enough people to sell to, it's time to stop "increasing your activity" and changing your activity to what really works in today's economy.

If you're not up to speed on modern, Information Age lead-generation methods, learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.

New York Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas is the creator of the Never Cold Call Again® System and has won numerous accolades, such as Readers Choice for Business Book of the Year from 800-CEO-READ, and has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential People. To learn more, and to download a free 37-page PDF preview of his Never Cold Call Again lead-generation system, visit NeverColdCall.com