No One Is Coming To Save Your Sales

I found an audience for my book “Some Will. Some Won’t. So What. Who’s Next?” by giving straightforward, practical advice from my No BS Sales System. Over two decades as a leading sales consultant, coach and trainer, I have heard the same thing from hundreds of clients: they appreciate my no-nonsense approach and my “own your own shit” attitude.

Reality Check: Your B2B Sales Success Is Up to You

Circumstances out of your control are not the reason you’re not winning more deals. The bad news is you’re the problem. The good news is that you are the only solution. Your B2B sales success is up tp you.

No matter what prospects, business partners, team members, competitors and the markets happen to throw at you, your job is to focus on what you can control and find opportunities with prospects who are ready, willing and able to buy. Most of your prospects aren’t. Even some that say they are aren’t really ready.

The sooner you discover that a prospect isn’t ready to make a change or the sale isn’t going to happen, the better.

So what. Who’s Next?

Someone in your marketplace is either actively looking for what you sell or would buy if they had a compelling reason to do so and a person they trusted to buy from. It’s your job to find them and be recognized as someone they trust. 

Business transactions happen, even during pandemics, wars and recessions. Even if you’re struggling, someone in your business, maybe even in your office, is crushing it right now. Ask yourself, what are they doing that I’m not? What do they believe that I don’t? What do I need to do differently or change my belief about to find the success I deserve?

It’s up to you. Your habits, attitude and actions determine your results. Whatever results you’re getting right now are because of your habits, attitude and actions from 90 days ago. 

The sooner you take ownership of your own shit and commit to fix it, the sooner you will improve your situation.

Small Changes, Big Results (Sales Is Not Just Linear Growth) 

Success rarely occurs in a straight line. Survivorship bias tells a story of “overnight success,” but rarely shows the months and years of ups and downs and struggles it took to get there. There is no shortcut, but incremental changes made now and executed consistently will position you for long-term success that compounds over time. The old adage “slow and steady wins the race” rings true.

When you make gradual improvements in your prospecting behavior and skillset, your pipeline will improve despite the minor missteps and readjustments that are inevitable.

 In many ways, sales production is like getting in shape. Consistent behavior over longer periods of time will always deliver better results than occasional bursts of effort. Prospecting will never get easier. You just have to keep getting better at it.

Build Your Sales Prospecting Machine (and Stop Wasting Time on Garbage Deals) 

As you begin to generate more high-quality opportunities through your intentional prospecting behavior, it’s easier to walk away from low probability, low-value deals that you held on to before.

Hunt for Deer, Not Squirrels  

I tell my clients to focus on “deer” prospects when going for new business and not squirrels. Squirrels are small clients and prospects. They’re often calling you to buy. They’re relatively easy to close, but they don’t generate much money and are highly service intensive. If you’re not making enough money and are worried about running out of time in your business day, you probably have a book full of squirrels.

Deer, on the other hand, are right in your sweet spot. They are profitable and you can sell them a more standardized offering/service or package. There are hundreds if not thousands of them in your marketplace. They don’t take extra work, value what you do and can pay for it. If you had somewhere between 25 and 100 deer, you’d have a damn nice book of business. 

Another classification of prospects and clients is an “elephant.” Elephants are the giant ones, the marquis accounts. They take a long time to close, you have to make major concessions to get the deal done and once you’ve gotten your contract signed, you need to ramp up (hire more people, dedicate resources solely to them, and do things their way) to handle them. They will first ask you to do a “little extra”, beyond the agreement (we call this scope creep), then sooner or later will tell you that you need to cut your prices to keep their business. Meanwhile, you haven’t been prospecting because you don’t have the time or resources to handle more business. And then they leave anyway.

Many businesses don’t survive when an elephant leaves. If any one client represents more than 25% of your revenue, you should consider them an elephant. To protect yourself and your business from an elephant attack, go find enough deer to dilute the elephant’s power over you.

To make more money and build a healthier business, focus on high-value prospects that are right in your wheel house. You will make more money and build a resilient business.

Raise your prices a lot on the small accounts! 2x or 3x even. Yes, about half of them will leave. Maybe you can refer them to your biggest competitor! The other half, the ones that stay, appreciate and value what you do, are more likely committed to growth and their revenue will replace the ones you lose. When you level up your sales game, your clients will level up with you.

Sell at Higher Margins (Stop Leaving Money on the Table) 

It’s time you raised your rates/pricing on all of your clients, or at a minimum, the new ones you’re bringing on board. You’ve been working your ass off and making less money because your expenses have gone up, but your prices haven't. It costs you more to run your business this year than last.

Imagine the better level of service you could provide if you had better margins. Or maybe your service was already best in class, but by discounting your price, you are only discounting yourself. The costs of your products and services aren't the problem. Your confidence is.

When something costs more, people put a higher value on it. By selling at a higher price, you will get better clients who care about the value you provide.

The equation is quite simple: more profitable clients = better business, more money and less stress.

No One Is Coming To Save Your Sales — So Step Up 

You’re also the only one able to address and fix the sales issues that are holding you back. Stop chasing low-value prospects, take responsibility for your results, focus on high-value clients and get better margins by raising your prices. 

By adopting and mastering the No BS Sales System, you will disqualify the deals quickly that weren’t going to close anyway, close the right ones faster than you imagined possible and get better margins than all of your competitors.

If you’re not happy where you are, you can bitch and make excuses, or you can do something about it.  Waiting around won’t fix your sales, your income or your business. Schedule a consultation with me, Walker McKay, founder of the No BS Sales School, to see how we can to put youon the right track!