Telemarketing Speaker Compares Internal & External Factors in Selling

Bob sat down to dial the phone at the place he once worked and thrived

. It had been three years since his last stint, but after a call or two, he fell right back into his groove.

It was as if nothing had changed. He simply offered his "We have it, you want it?" appeal, expecting he'd harvest his traditional bounty of sales.

Instead, he seemed to be bouncing off an invisible barrier.

The same folks that had purchased from him before, in some cases many times, were friendly, but sounded shell-shocked. Zombied by the recession, they weren't the carefree souls Bob used to know.

Politely but a little too automatically, they said, "Sure, send me something on that," but frightfully few converted into sales.

Had he lost his touch?

Smooth and friendly as ever, Bob was perplexed. Something was wrong.

"It's the economy, dummy!" one of his new pals pointed out.

Bob didn't want to succumb to negative thinking, so at first he rejected this glib analysis. It sounded like an excuse, blaming outside conditions for his results, or more to the point, for his non-results.

His manager endorsed the alibi. "This economy is like trying to jump on Jupiter. It is so massive, and its gravity is so strong, that you're fighting against a tremendous downward force."

Which brings us to this all-important question: To what extent do salespeople govern their results, based on skills, attitudes, and work habits? And what influence does the external environment, the economy at large, demand for one's product, and buyer characteristics enter the equation?

Most sales training programs support a seller-centered view of reality. Salespeople are told the territory where sales are made or missed is located between their ears.

Like Han Solo in "Star Wars," top sellers don't want to hear about "the odds" against success, believing that they'll come out on top, no matter what.

"If you believe you can, you're right; and if you believe you can't, you're also right," is what they believe.

But what if the economy has changed, and instead of closing one prospect out of three or four, it takes disproportionately more to reel in a deal? What, then?

Should sellers deny the negative feedback they're getting? Is it better to propagate a myth, that they are the architects of their destiny?

In a word, yes.

Even in a Depression, the following generalizations are incorrect:

Nobody can buy.

Everybody can buy.

Which is to say, some people are buying, in the worst of times, but if we debilitate ourselves as sellers, choosing to believe (1) instead of (2), we won't be prepared to harvest the potential sales that are actually out there, waiting for us.

Assuming (1) and (2) are both fictions, which is the more CONSTRUCTIVE one to internalize, to use as a motivational principle? Clearly, it is the idea that everyone can buy.

Give a running back the football, and instruct him to charge up the middle, into the arms of multiple defenders, and how much yardage will he gain?

Possibly a yard or two, or maybe more, if he believes he faces a wall of resistance.

But if he thinks he can break a tackle or two, emerging into an open field, he could run all the way for a touchdown.

Likewise, in a tough economy, we should prepare ourselves to take several hits as the price we pay for small gains. But keep hope alive.

Every now and then, you'll be able to score on the toughest defenses, and emerge, victorious.

As motivational speaker Les Brown said: "Sure it was hard, but YOU DID IT, HARD!"

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, sales, service, and negotiation consultant, attorney, TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books. He conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His new audio program is Nightingale-Conant's "Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech & Writing." He can be contacted about professional speaking and consulting opportunities at gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Telemarketing Speaker Compares Internal & External Factors in Selling

By: Dr. Gary S. Goodman

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