As the illustrious Jim Carrey once said, "So you're saying there's a chance..." I got off a call today with a client who wants to move forward with a training program to close out this year in a big way (or better than it's gone so far). Our initial discovery call was in November 2019!! Either I suck as a salesperson that it took so long to close this. OR: - I stayed politely persistent over the years so I didn't lose connection with them and also didn't annoy them to the point of wanting me to go away.
- I made effective use of my systems so the contacts were at the right intervals.
- I kept finding ways to add value to them - it wasn't 14 emails in 4 years asking "Are you ready yet?"
- I asked the right questions to understand what they were thinking and dealing with internally so I knew their "buying" cycle. Process matters in sales, but there's no substitute for persistence. Some have this, but it's also something that can be trained and coached, as well as managed for and motivated. Put simply, there's no excuses if you don't have a team with this characteristic.