Empty Boxes and Orders
There are two types of sales professionals. The first type is called the “It Is Not My Fault Salesperson” and will routinely bring back excuses on why they didn’t make the sale to the prospect.
The second type is the “Empty Boxes and Orders Salesperson.” This sales professional is given that name because that is routinely what they bring back – empty boxes that used to hold product and back-orders for more product.
If you are in sales, you must decide which group you will fall into. Now, does this mean that if you are an “Empty Boxes and Orders Salesperson” that you will one hundred percent of the time bring back empty boxes and orders? Of course not; every now and then you will bring back boxes of product and no orders.
However, because you are not the “It is Not My Fault Salesperson” you refuse to allow yourself to make excuses or blame the situation or prospect for the lack of sales. Instead, you pose the question – What could I have done differently to earn their business? What could I have said that I didn’t say that might have caused them to move to action? When you shift the responsibility for making the sale from the prospect to yourself, you are shifting your mindset from a victim of sales to a creator of sales.
Victims of the sales environment have skinny kids. Creators of a positive sales environment take their kids on exotic vacations. I recently had a speaking engagement where I sold every single person in the room and sold out of every product I brought. When I got back to the office I shared with my business partner that I thought I could have done a few things differently to get more sales the next time.
He looked at me and smiled and said, “Ron how could you have done any better? You sold everything that you brought with you and you sold every person in the room!”
I kind of smiled and said, “Yeah, I guess you are right.”
But you know what? That is just my attitude. After every sales presentation I give, I always ask the question, “How could I have sold more? How could I have made more money?” In other words, what can I do to get better? The “It Is Not My Fault Salesperson” refuses to ask those probing questions of themselves because in doing so, they are admitting that they alone, are responsible for the outcome of their income.
Take responsibility for your sales numbers and results, and I can’t wait until you are bringing back empty boxes and orders more often than not!
