Nothing Sells Like Selling

Nothing sells like selling.

Huh?

When I had my first sales job, a colleague used to say that, and at the time, I didn't appreciate how true that statement was.

Almost every day, I hear someone asking for help growing their business, which makes sense because that is what I do! But, I also hear a version of the business growth question that is looking for a shortcut or a hack to make business growth easy.

There are no shortcuts. There are no hacks. Selling is work. It takes effort, focus, intelligence, persistence, empathy, consistency, and attitude.

An old friend called me yesterday, and during the conversation, he said he still does cold calls. Not picking up the phone cold calls but walking in the front door and saying hello cold calls. In-person. Almost every day.

His title is not a salesperson or even VP of Sales. He is the owner of the company. He also describes himself as a salesperson, and he is right!

Yet he still takes the time to reach out to prospects in person. When he called me, he was in NC for his son's college soccer game. That morning he looked up building contractors in the area and went to visit three of them. His company sells building products and primarily goes to market with building contractors.

In all three cases, the contractors were happy to see him and welcomed him with smiling faces. He ended his hour or so of cold calls with three good conversations and three business cards.

Do you think those three contractors will remember him? I think they will.

Does he have a perfect opportunity to follow up on those conversations with more information? Yep.

My friend made the effort. He has the discipline to work at selling every day.

Before you look for some magical fix to your lack of sales, make sure your team is working at it in a disciplined way. Make sure they put in the hours, make the extra call, follow up on all outstanding proposals and quotes, and check in with customers regularly. 

Because nothing sells like selling.