3 Ways to Bust Out of a Sales Slump
Everyone has them. Whether they are a couple weeks, or even a couple months, no salesperson, just like no athlete, is immune to a slump. The best salespeople, just like the best athletes, minimize the length and overall impact of that slump.
For a salesperson, you can minimize the effects of a sales slump in a few different ways. Here are three that almost always work for me.
Get Referrals from Your Best Clients: I know we should always be getting referrals, but we don't. In the moments of my biggest struggles, I always turned to the people who I sold to, who I had the best relationships with, for help. And go to them hat in hand. 'I've really appreciated working with you, and I need your help.' Your honesty will go a LONG way and have more authenticity than anything else you try to craft to say. You will also be shocked at how your best will want to help you out when you approach them in that way. They like you. They trust you. They want to help you.
Attach Yourself to Your Phone: You may not like me for this one. If there was ever a day to make 200 phone calls, it's in the middle of a sales slump. When we haven't made sales, and our pipeline is dry, we need to focus on the top of the funnel. We need to introduce more people into our pipeline. And there's no faster way to do so than create a focused day of phone calls. Back in January I discussed 5 ways to maximize a call block, well, you need to turn that block into a day. It's not sexy, but it's critical.
Get Face-to-Face: And then lower the bar from 'trying to sell to sell them on this call,' to 'try to get face-to-face'. There is no higher close rate than a face-to-face meeting. So take advantage of it. Getting them to a sales event is easier than closing them on the phone. Getting them to a game is easier than closing them on the phone. Getting them to a stadium tour is easier than closing them. If you are meeting a lot of people face-to-face, it will almost become impossible NOT to sell. This is also true for going to networking events, working to find leads at your game, or wearing your team logo at the gym/golf course/dog park, etc. If you put yourself in positions to create genuine, human connections...you'll make more sales.
The #1 thing all three of these things have in common is being proactive. The worse of the reps, in times of struggle, become even more reactive. They chase ghost accounts, they wait for the inbound line to ring in, etc. The best reps take a slump by the scruff of the neck. They become even more active than they are normally. Given that they know that referrals close at the highest percentage, and fans still close face-to-face and over the phone, they attack those channels with a vengeance. They work as hard as possible to be as efficient as possible.
That all revolves around accountability. The best reps feel accountable to their team and themselves to produce every day. And if they don't produce one day, they walk into the office the next day with their pants absolutely on fire. They attack with purpose and intent. While the worst of sales reps seem to be looking for sales, they are finding sales. I love the quote on the right. Go get yourself out of your slumps. Ain't nobody else doing it.