Activity, not Talent, Will Make You a Success

My Uncle Corragio wanted to be the greatest insurance salesman in the world. But, the first three hundred people he called on all said “no.”
His friends told him, Corragio, you will never make it, you should quit. But Corragio stuck to his guns. He said, “No! No! No! I will not quit till I am the greatest salesman in the world.”

After five hundred calls he finally made one sale. He called me up and said, “Antonio, you know about sales. Help me.”

I said, “Corragio, let’s look at what you did right on this sale, and then we will just repeat that on the next sale, and you will get wealthy.” So I asked Corragio, “Tell me exactly, word for word what you said to close this sale, and we will say that on the next one.”

Corragio told me, “I was at the clients house. I kneeled down on the floor crying. Finally I put my hands together and begged, Mama, please, you have to buy the insurance.”

I advised Corragio to find a new line of wok.

When I am doing sales consulting, the most frequent problem that salespeople tell me they are experiencing in their career is that they aren’t making enough money. When I ask them why they think that is, they often say, “I just can’t seem to close.”
We all agree that closing is important. And the basic rule ABC, always be closing, applies from the fist telephone contact with the client, when you begin laying ground work for the close, straight on through the delivery of the product, when you are laying ground work for the next sale. BUT! Closing ratio is not what separates the wealthy salesperson from the one who has to borrow money form his or her mother to pay the rent.
The one aspect of a salesperson’s behavior that ill immediately make or break him, is ACTIVITY. Here, activity is defined as the time spent prospecting, looking for new clients. If you lose one sale, and you definitely will, it won’t matter to you if you have ten more prospects lined up.
How many times have you found yourself at the end of the month, staring at an abysmal sales sheet, which is going to result in an abysmal paycheck? If the rent is due, the credit card bills are in, and you are making car payments, you feel a pressure in your chest. You want to get out of sales. You panic. Then, you decided to focus on the next prospect. “This sale is make-or-break.” You tell yourself. Actually, that sale is not make or break. An you wouldn’t believe that it was make or break if you had ten, rather than one more prospect lined up. That single meeting is no different than any other sale. But because you are in such dire financial straights, you will treat it differently. You will want it to much, and you ill blow it.
You are a professional. You know the steps and phases you need to go through to close the deal. But you are going to skip steps, get out of your rhythm and lose the sale, because you didn’t have enough other business. You will lose your best prospect an be back to zero.
Let’s say you get lucky and close that one deal, and somehow mange to save your month. First of all, do you want to live by luck? You became a salesperson, because salespeople, as opposed to employees, are complete in control of their own destiny. Closing the deal gives you a boost of confidence, and falsely leads you to believe that you are handling your business well. Remember that every time you close a deal, you still lose your best prospect, because that prospect becomes a client.
Once you close the deal, you have to line up another prospect to take the one who you just lost. The inability to find that next client accounts for the boom-and-but cycle that most sales people go through.
The point this is leading to I that whether you are a good closer or a bad closer, you have to have a lot of prospects lined up, or you will starve.
The number one “secret” people ask me is, “How do I close?” Closing is an art, and on some level it can be taught and learned. On some level, I believe it is a talent, like playing music, some people have it and some people don’t. Does that mean that some people are destined to be more successful salespeople? Absolutely not! Sales figures have proven, time and time again, that talent doesn’t make you rich. Education doesn’t make you rich. Even being a good closer doesn’t make you rich. The thing that makes you rich is activity, getting on the phone, or out on the street and pulling in prospects. No amount of talent can replace good old-fashioned hard work.
Before we talk about closing ratio or activity we have to stress the importance of tracking, quantifying your sales activity. You should keep detailed record of how many people you called, how many you spoke to, how many you sat with, and how many you closed. Once we have these kinds of numbers then we can analyze and determine where a salesperson can improve. If you have a high number of appointments, but sales, then your closing ration may be the problem. Low appointments and low income, obviously you need more appointments. Lots of appointments set, but few meetings kept, means that you aren’t effectively closing the appointments before hanging up the phone.
At a company where I worked once, there were three star salesmen. Brent and Jason were nearly identical twins. They were both six feet tall, good looking, all-American kids, who had pledged a fraternity in college. People took an instant liking to them. They couldn’t be bothered to actually learn anything about the product, but just on the strength of their personality, they were able to close 60% of their sales. Most sales people are in the 30-50% range. They would each schedule three to four meetings a week, close two, and make it onto the sales board, where most people were struggling to close one. The were notoriously lazy. They never showed up at sales meetings, and stayed out all day, shopping and visiting friends.
The other star salesman, Michael, was a notoriously bad closer. His closing ratio ran about 20%. BUT, Michael worked hard, ten or twelve hours a day. He schedules 18 meetings a week, and closed three to four of them.
Brent and Jason were shocked when Michael won the award for highest sales of the year. Michale proved that hard work, not talent make the salesman successful.
Look at your own sales numbers. If your closing ratio stayed exactly as it is, how many meetings would you need to make the income you want? Once you have that number, pick up the phone and start prospecting.