Another Loss, Another Pity Party

by Kelly Riggs

Salespeople can be an odd lot.

Not because they talk too much or too loud. Not because they’re pushy or too aggressive. No, I’m thinking of something quite different. I’m thinking of the difference in how they react to success, and how they react to failure.

You see, when salespeople win a sale – when they close a deal – it’s because they are good at what they do. Just ask them! They will tell you how hard they worked; how smooth they were. The will give you every detail of how they set the hook and reeled in the Big One.

“Drinks all around!”

But if you listen to salespeople talk about a loss, you will hear something else entirely. Instead of talking about their mistakes or missteps, you’ll hear a litany of reasons that explain why they lost the sale.

“The economy sucks.”

“The sales territory is crap.”

“The leads are terrible.”

“Marketing is ineffective.”

“Pricing is out of line.”

“Our products aren’t even competitive.”

Whatever works.

It’s excuse du jour, a full-blown pity party. “Get your own freaking drinks, dude.”

See the difference? Salespeople will tell you how awesome they are when they stumble into a sale, but it’s never their fault when they lose a sale.

In fact, it’s not at all unusual to hear a salesperson blame the customer when they lose. Like this: “That guy doesn’t have a clue.” Maybe not, but somebody won the business, didn’t they? And it wasn’t you.

So, here is an etched-in-stone, take-it-to-the-bank, sales truism for the ages: Average salespeople don’t take responsibility for their failures. As a result, they cannot, and will not, ever rise above average, because they can never figure out what the real issue is and work to fix it.

Great salespeople fail – and learn.

Average salespeople fail – and make excuses. #truth

Effective Sales Leadership?

If you’re a sales manager, one of the first things you must do is establish a culture that learns from failure. Instead of allowing your salespeople to blaming something or someone else, you have to get them to look in the mirror.

Of course, that’s a bit difficult without a defined sales process. Without a process to follow, it is very difficult to analyze what went wrong. In fact, without a defined sales process, you will struggle to know exactly why your salespeople win a deal!

Is it because they have that special “something” that no one else has? Are they lucky? Is it something specific? Without objective evidence, sales managers are left to speculate and assume that some observable characteristic must be the answer: they work harder, they know more people, they’re older (or younger), or whatever comes to mind. In other words, you have no idea.

So, one of the first steps in sales leadership is to establish an effective sales process that can be taught, analyzed, and replicated (Note: If you’re looking for a sales process that works, I would humbly suggest Quit Whining and Start SELLING!). This will allow you and your team to look at each sales opportunity through the lens of a sales process and actually determine what might have been missed.

After all, when a deal is lost there is a reason for it, right? Sometimes, there are several reasons. So, the question you and the salesperson must ask is “Why?” Why did the salesperson fail?

Believe me, the odds are overwhelming they missed something critical or made a fatal mistake.

• They failed to identify an important buying influence.
• They made a presentation before they understood the customer’s need.
• They understood the need, but missed a critical motivation for the purchase.
• They failed to differentiate the company/solution in any meaningful way
• They didn’t provide enough value to the customer to warrant the hassle of making a change.

These are quite common mistakes, and there are dozens more. If you, as the sales manager, allow your salespeople to blame circumstances or other people for their failures, and you never identify the real reasons they’re falling short, you’re not creating a team of professional salespeople, you’re developing a team of professional whiners.

My experience is that successful salespeople are not whiners. Nor are they victims. They don’t worry about what everybody else is doing or what circumstances they may have to endure. They simply worry about themselves. They analyze wins and losses. They make adjustments. They learn from failure.

I’m not saying that external factors don’t influence wins and losses. Of course, they do. In fact, there are usually several variables beyond the salesperson’s control that will have an impact on the sale. But far more often than not, the primary reason for a loss is one or more mistakes the salesperson makes. If you take the time to learn what those mistakes are, your team’s winning percentage will rise dramatically.

My sense is you’ll enjoy sales management far more if your next party is a celebration of a big win, and not a pity party.