The Seven Principles of Sales Success

These seven "principles" affecting sales productivity have been condensed from global survey results on salespeople across a variety of industries and cultures. Regardless of what business or environment one is in, the applicability of these ideas are universal.

1. New prospects are the lifeblood of a business.

2. Selling is a "Numbers Game." The more you contact, the more you close.

3. Without new prospects, all presenting and closing skills are worthless.

4. Getting sales people to prospect, rather than showing them how to prospect, is sales management's greatest challenge.

5. Eighty percent of new sales people, who terminate in Year 1, do so due to lack of prospecting activity.

6. Forty percent of veteran sales people experience one or more episodes of Call Reluctance severe enough to threaten their sales careers.

7. Assessment of existing willingness or reluctance to prospect is the starting point in improving sales productivity.

Aside from the issue of "fit" -- which has to do with whether or not a person is suited for a sales career in the first place -- prospecting is the most important behavioral variable that affects success in sales. However, prospecting is not about the "how to." My own experience in working with hundreds of successful and not-so-successful producers boils down to this simple truth: Prospecting is 80% motivation and 20% skill. Converting (i.e., presenting and closing) is 80% skill and 20% motivation. Conscious or unconscious resistance to prospecting for new business is a complex behavior that has many underlying roots.

In numerous research studies over the last two decades, psychologists studying successful sales behaviors have learned that skills and knowledge are the easier elements to identify and develop. Though essential for peak performance, they are by themselves not sufficient for breakthrough results. Skills and knowledge are the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak. The unseen structure below the waterline is more difficult to identify and develop. They are: (a) self-image, (b) traits, and (c) motives. These "submerged" attributes are actually the underlying characteristics that lead to longer-term success.

In our consulting and sales coaching practice, we generally acknowledge two key (interrelated) modes that govern sales success. The first variable is simply a person's "internal wiring." This is the "Strengths Profile" that characterizes how a person acts within a work/professional context. The second centers on prospecting behavior, which is equally identifiable and measurable. Prospecting reluctance can be reduced to three components: thoughts, feelings, and actions. Actions are generally accompanied by thoughts and feelings, which are in turn learned and/or genetically predisposed. For the most part, call reluctance usually involves learned negative emotions like fear. The good news is that it can also be unlearned and corrected -- some types easier than others to "cure."