The Numbers Game Mentality is a Losing Strategy

Sales is no longer a “numbers game.”

You cannot succeed, long term, by focusing on volume of activity.

Making a million dials, sending a million emails, knocking on a million doors (the first two are way easier than that last one) is a scorched earth strategy that will sink your business.

You can’t out-dial a bad sales process. It will lead to even more bad online reviews.

You can’t out-email a terrible sales funnel process that requires people to jump through poorly planned hoops.

You can’t out-knock your way past slimy tactics and bad products/services.

The Danger of the "Every No Gets Me Closer to a Yes" Mindset

The whole “every no gets me one step closer to a yes” mentally is dangerous. That mindset and strategy assumes that it’s a numbers game. That the only thing that matters is finding the right person who will buy from you. Potentially, no matter what you even say – they are just ready to buy.

Not only will this destroy any online reputation you have it will also wreak havoc on your team. It is the fastest and best way to burn out your team. It will lead to a revolving door or hiring, training, and quitting as people realize how unfun the game is you have built and how hard it is to be successful.

It will also feel like a mismatch – very few people (and hopefully even less over time) are long-term excited about the business model of calling 500 people a day in hopes of making a few sales.

If It’s Not a Numbers Game, Then What Is It?

It’s quality over quantity.

[Now…note – it does take a certain quantity of activity to fill a sales pipeline. So I am not saying that your sales team can just sit and wait for people to fall into their pipeline with money in hand.]

It’s about the Sales Experience.

It’s about your team ensuring that they are providing the right and best experience for that potential customer – in a way that sets them up to get into the buying mood and mode.

All that matters is the Sales Experience.

How can you support your team in terms of the quantity of activity to fill a pipeline, and then the quality of interaction that leads to sales?

What Does an Ideal Sales Experience Look Like?

What does that look like – the ideal Sales Experience?

It’s when your team understands that the potential customer they are speaking with only cares about themselves. They don’t care about the salesperson, your company or the product.

They are only focused on themselves.

It’s when the Discovery/Empathy portion of the conversation is the most important part. Does your team realize that everything after Discovery – when done right – is just a presentation of the solution?

It’s the fact that when you combine the parts of the Authentic Persuasion Pathway (Rapport + Empathy + Trust + Hope + Urgency) that the assumptive close is all you need.

If your team is having to ask for the sale they are doing sales wrong. And don’t confuse earning the right to close with asking for the sale.

The Sales Leader’s Role in Creating a World-Class Sales Experience

Your job as a sales leader is to ensure your team understands that the only thing – above all else – is the sales experience they provide to each potential customer. That customer knows that they have the power and the feeling of unlimited choice. Which means they will decide who to give their money to based on the experience they have with buying from a company.

How can you shift your team away from the numbers game mentality to actually providing a world class sales experience to each and every person they speak with?