With all the talk in the news of the Financial Fiscal Cliff, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the “Fiscal Sales Cliff”. It’s an event that is looming for those sales professionals that haven’t really admitted to themselves that the sales landscape has drastically changed over the past 5 to 6 years. They are like many ill-educated Americans that never bothered to believe the consumer’s buying skills have improved at a far faster pace than the sales skills of those attempting to sell them.
For the first few years, many sales professionals got away with not changing their sales approach or attempting to improve their sales skills. This was mostly blamed on the “bad economy” excuse, which is the most overused excuse for every failure, lack of effort, goal shortfall, lack of profit, nose bleed, divorce or lost job in America today. These lackluster sales want-to-be’s have not even looked past their iPhones to see that many true sales professionals are selling like gangbusters. They can’t afford to see that there is a new way of selling since it will mean they will have to start building those pesky relationships with their prospective customers. They may have to begin to learn how to use a CRM (Customer Relations Management) software or perform a web-meeting. They may also have to learn how to provide solutions rather than babble the features and benefits, since the prospective customer probably knows better than they do. Heaven forbid, they may have to try to reconnect with past customers in an effort to re-kindle their business.
The fact is, time is running out for the “Sales Slackers”. The Fiscal Sales Cliff is just ahead and they still aren’t convinced that it’s real. They’re the guys that respond by saying……. “I made sales in 2012, they were just lower than the year before”. I say, “a blind hog finds an acorn if he roots around long enough”. Sure you can make sales without the proper sales skills, but you’re not a sales professional. Most of the time you’re the guy selling on the cheapest price since you‘re too lazy to learn to communicate the value of your product and provide your customer with the positive buying experience we all look for. Or, you could be that guy waiting on the sales leads to be dropped in your lap. You know, just like a whale that simply opens his mouth for the smaller fish to swim in rather than prospect or set up an effective referral network.
The gap between effective sales professionals and “sales slackers” grows every day. In the weeks and months to come, will you be at the top of the Fiscal Sales Cliff looking down at the victims of sales arrogance OR at the bottom of the cliff looking up while you fill out your job application for the fast food chain up the street? The choice is yours….