Wanting versus needing the business

“I want your business but I don’t need your business.

“I want your business but I don’t need your business.” This mentality makes a huge difference with our approach and results in Sales. If we can get into this mindset we end up focusing way more on the client’s needs instead of closing the sale which ultimately leads to much more, better and bigger sales.

We tend to do a lot of shady and/or pathetic stuff when we need the business. We offer discounts so we can close on our timeline, not the clients when if we had just waited to close when they were ready we would have been able to sign them at rate card without losing our dignity. We chase and waste a lot of time on bad deals/clients because we think any revenue is good revenue. We ruin relationships with people we have been working with by going over their head just because we don’t think they are going to get the deal closed for us in time. These are all results of needing the business which ultimately is the result of a weak pipeline.

In my 18 years of professional selling I have come to realize there is one solution for almost every challenge we face in Sales – a big fat pipeline. When we have a big fat pipeline you don’t have to discount, chase bad deals, go over people’s heads, etc. We can focus your efforts 100% on what the client needs and developing the right solution for them when they need it. By removing the stress of a weak pipeline we become far more of a consultative seller which ultimately leads to greater success in Sales all the way around. This is why consistent and effective prospecting is more critical now than ever in Sales.

Regardless of our position (SDR, BDR, AE, Enterprise, MM, SMB), we should all be prospecting at least a little bit every day. The key to effective and consistent prospecting is to develop a process and build it into your routine. I schedule 30 minutes on my calendar every morning to do high quality prospecting. I use social tools like google alerts, facebook, twitter, www.insideview.com and others to follow my top tier target accounts and have the information come to me in my inbox during that time so I don’t have to go out searching for it. I then develop messaging I can re-purpose for common triggers I see and can make a connection to (M&A, new office, new products, etc). As I sit and drink my morning coffee I scan through the data feeds looking for things I can make connections to with my target clients. I send out 2-5 e-mails every morning which helps me keep my pipeline nice and full.

With this approach I haven’t had to do any of the desperate stuff I used to and I haven’t discounted in over 2 years. I’m now able to focus all my efforts on the client, finding the right fit and developing the right solution. I truly want the right business without needing it and this makes all the difference in the world. Good luck and happy selling.

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