When I started selling 22 years ago, it was all about guts. The people who failed were often called lazy, but they weren’t lazy – they were scared. In my first sales job, we had to confront strangers at 30 - 40 offices every day and attempt to schedule a product demonstration. If they agreed, we then had to ask these strangers if they had the authority to make a buying decision. If they weren’t important enough, we had to ask them to invite someone more important that can sign a purchase order. Once we did the demo that was staged to simply “show you the latest technology”, we had to ask the decision-maker for the order. If they said no, we had to ask why and then overcome their objection. We would repeat this cycle until they agreed or kicked us out of their office.
This process required guts. The reason sales people weren’t making the calls isn’t because they were lazy – they would do anything else to avoid making the cold calls because they were scared of the rejection and the embarrassment that undoubtedly came every day. Having guts was the most important characteristic to having success in sales back then.
Today, it’s different. In a nutshell, we’re not our customers’ primary source of information anymore. If our customers want to know anything, all they have to do is spend a few minutes online and they’re “experts”. Manipulating conversations, persistent door-knocking, or the concept of one decision-maker are notions that don’t exist today.
Today, the most important element to successful selling is intelligence. It’s not about guts, it’s about brains.
Don’t get me wrong, hard work, persistence, and courage are helpful traits to succeed in sales today. However, your hustle better be backed by creative substance – intelligence that you’re bringing to your prospects and customers. In everything you do … cold calls, emails, trade shows, sales calls, public presentations, product demo’s, afternoon coffee meetings … you have to bring something of intelligence that will make your prospects and customers smarter and better. If you just stop by to check in or touch base, you’ll lose. Remember, you’re not their source of information anymore – they don’t think they need you anymore… unless you make yourself valuable.
By the way, most of your competitors still think it’s about guts, so you have a huge opportunity to dominate your market.
