Times are good right now – really, really good. A lot of average salespeople are making a ton of money, taking off Fridays, and losing a sense of reality. The five-day summer trip to the lake has turned into a three-week jaunt around the Mediterranean. Family ski trips have become standard – even for salespeople living in Florida and Texas. Owning a Lexus or BMW is so “Account Manager” nowadays – hunters and closers drive Maseratis and Teslas. Twenty-thousand-dollar sales? Forget it. Only rookies deal in those pesky little sales. How about prospecting and weekly routines? I think you know the answer by now.
An unfortunate outcome of great times is a decrease in good habits. When the sales are flowing, it takes a lot of self-discipline to stay on top of industry knowledge, attend networking events, or follow a prospecting plan for an untapped vertical market. Focusing on the process that puts food on the table seems boring when that huge order put a Mercedes in the garage. However, the process that creates hundreds of small and medium sales make great salespeople. When the enormous opportunity comes along, the sales professional that has been working their boring process will be the one best positioned to win it.
Don’t buy into the hype. The longest economic expansion on record combined with an increased demand for security technology have created a perfect storm that is making a lot of average salespeople rich. However, this anomalous time is also making a lot of great salespeople super rich. When this time comes to an end (and it will), the great ones are going to enjoy a healthy pipeline and a reputation of expertise while Joe Average that bought into the idea that he didn’t need to follow a process is going to be sucking air and looking for something else to do for a living.
Create a process. Follow it. Fall in love with it.
