I am going to share the very simple secret to unbelievable sales success. It is so simple that you are going to hit yourself on the side of your head and go, "DUH."
But first, a quick story about my own epiphany. Several months ago I was speaking in Nashville, which is also the home of my sister. Before leaving town I had lunch with my sister and her son.
As it turns out, Brad, my nephew, had been working in sales for a logistics company. Brad loved his job and is very good at it. In his first six months with the company he added 19 new accounts. That seemed to me to be a lot of new accounts, so I asked about that.
Brad told me that the company had not added that many new accounts in the three years before he took over. Now I was really curious, so I asked how many of those accounts were companies that did not work with a logistics company before he sold them on his company.
When he told me that they all were working with another vendor I was floored. Since this is the same scenario that group health agents face, I had to know the secret to his success.
Persistence makes perfect
After I asked Brad how he sold 19 new cases in six months when his predecessors did not add that many new accounts in three years he laughed and replied, "Uncle Mel, that's easy. I just made the calls."
I next asked what he meant by he "just made the calls." He explained that every single day he dialed the phone 100 times. Out of 100 dials, he reached between eight and 10 decision-makers. The other 90 dials received a voice message.
Hearing this, I could not help but wonder about the size of his call list, which it turns out wasn't very big. Approximately every two weeks he would start at the beginning and run through the list again. Over time he would receive a call back from 1% of the messages left.
Next, I wanted to know how he is able to keep making that many calls if he has 19 new accounts to service. Once more Brad surprised me with his reply. He patiently explained that regardless of how busy he was with service he always scheduled time to make his calls.
He looked at me like I was an idiot as he told me that it was a matter of what you wanted. Brad wanted to earn the biggest bonus that his company would pay, and he wanted to be on the fast track to management. So, he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goals. And then he said this, "Uncle Mel, other salespeople make excuses for not making the calls, but I know that anything they say is just an excuse. They just don't want it bad enough."
So here is the secret: Your success is directly proportional to the frequency at which you share your value proposition with the right prospects. It is that simple. If the only thing that you did everyday was make 100 dials and simply say, "I would like a chance to help you solve your health insurance problem," you would soon find that you have more appointments than you can get to. And if you left that same message as 90 voicemails, you would get some people that would call you back.
Sharing your message is not limited to the telephone. Go to networking events, talk to people. The point is that you have to get out of your comfort zone and do what salespeople have always done, and that is talk to prospects. Oh, one more thing - simple does not mean easy.
Schlesinger is an independent consultant focused on helping benefit professionals double their income. Reach him at (336) 777- 3938 or through
