Sales is not about numbers!

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay 

Sales is not about numbers. This might be one of the craziest things that you might have heard recently about sales but unfortunately, this is true. Imagine this coming from someone like me who has had over a decade worth of corporate sales exposure, half of which is cross-continent. I constantly meet a lot of sales leaders, business managers who boast that they are “all about numbers”, they have their “game right”. 

While all this confidence is great to have and it does work wonders to get past the scoreboard, what most of these leaders do not realise is that such a stance does more harm than good, in the long run. Having the mindset of a number is an archaic, orthodox and inefficient way to deal with customers, both current and prospect. What is needed today is a change in the mindset of the warriors of leading companies. 

The Irony

The biggest irony is that the values and parameters of big companies are alienated from the sales teams of these organizations. These teams follow their vision and mission. For example, according to Dimension Data, at least 81% of companies think that customer service is a key differentiator in their business while the sales teams are stuck on numbers.

Organization leaders turn a blind eye to brand communication and customer handling from the sales teams “as long as they meet or exceed their numbers”. This kind of short-sightedness or myopic view leads to a poor culture where the focus is kept on day-to-day revenue generation where the sales team slog to “live another day” at work. 

Companies that have a customer mindset at everything perform 4-8% better than those who don’t, in any industry and this number is increasing by the day. Imagine if such is the case for the overall business world, what could the stats look like if only the service industry was considered in this research?   

Myopic Mindset Effect

At the beginning of this article, I had mentioned how sales leaders boast of their numbers game. Now imagine what happens when they take this kind of mindset with them to the sales floor where the real action happens? The team communicates with the prospect or the customer and pulls the “numbers” game, disregarding the customer needs.

Acting like a vendor and not listening to the customer leads to either poor customer service and no value-add to the customer. Do you think any customer will stay with any organization after such treatment is meted out to them? Not only these customers go but they make sure that they speak to at least 8 others. 

As per a study reported by Forbes, there is a total loss of 62 billion dollars every year in the United States due to poor customer service. Is it not better to retain the current customers by taking care of them rather than making a hundred frantic cold calls to unqualified leads each day like robots? 

Real-life Example

I wanted to get my car serviced last month and I was looking for better prices and a dealer closer to my location. After some research, I narrowed it down and confirmed a dealer for my regular paid service. I had given strict instructions to them that I should be called before the job sheet was opened against my car. 

The service manager gave me a call and we went through each item that needed to be either changed or serviced. I told him that I will need all the old parts in a bag when the service is over. He insisted that certain parts must be changed. We had finally agreed upon a price to be INR 4,000.  

While in the morning I had received the proforma, the same evening I received the final invoice with the same amount. For a moment, I was happy that the two amounts matched. I even cleared the bill immediately via online transfer. However, as soon as I saw the itemized billing, I was shocked.  

Lack of Transparency and Honesty

There was a total lack of transparency and honesty from the service manager. When I called him and asked him for an explanation for such discrepancy, his reply was simply “sir, you had agreed to pay this amount”. Imagine ordering delivery from a restaurant only to find out that all the items were changed other than the bill amount! 

What do you think happened here in this case? It is a clear example of focusing on generating revenue instead of focusing on customer needs. Instead of providing me reliable low-cost service, the manager focused on his monthly targets. Do you think I will, or for that matter, anyone will go to this dealer for another service? 

Sales function vs Sales role

Most times sales departments get confused between the internal message or mindset floated to them vs what they are supposed to do in front of the customer. They are not to blame as they are simply the foot soldiers, it is the responsibility of the sales leaders to take charge and educate their teams. 

Sales Function

A sales function is what you do to justify your salary to the organization. You bring revenue, do business development, focus on your goals. This the back-end of your department. The daily sales calls, CRM updating, coordinating with other departments, conducting meetings, focusing on the pipeline and creating meaningful sales intensity plans are all about your function. 

Sales Role

Your role as a salesperson is front-end the customer or the prospect. Be their advisor, guide and advocate. Fight for them when you need to with your organization if need be. Create customer value right at the beginning, show them the benefit and help them reduce their costs. Listen to them, for the sake of professionalism.   

What do you think will happen if you do the above with all your best efforts? The customer will see through it and will support you when you need it the most. Think of those lull months when your pipeline is half-empty. Or when your previous month’s numbers have rolled over. These are the customers who will stand by you.

The ratio

If you had to put it in numbers, I would say 30:70 between your function vs your role. If your organization doesn’t understand this or forces the other way round, do not hesitate to put your foot down or simply walk away to an organization that cares for its prospects or customers. 

Sales is an infinite game

The infinite game from Game Theory reminds us that there is no winner or loser. There is perpetuity where each one thinks long term. Players come and go and everything in between can change. Sales is just an infinite game where the focus should be given to long-term implications of customer service, retention, relationship rather than day-to-day inefficiencies. 

Sales leaders should focus on team performance, efficiency and effectiveness rather than slogging all day trying to send out a wrong message. For example, instead of cold-calling unending prospects, how about streamlining qualified prospects and calling a handful of them each day? Or better yet, focusing on customer value first rather than on numbers via dishonesty? 

The magic rule is that each salesperson should be working for the future and not for the same day. Imagine scrambling the sales team to get “x revenue today”. This pushes these teams to use shady tactics and below-the-belt strategies that do more harm to the customer or the prospect.  

Sales Communication

One of the best ways to begin making the changes to reap the benefits is to conduct extensive training for the sales teams to update their “sales communication” skills. Instead of pushing the product or the service down the prospect’s throat, it is better to speak the language that the customer will relate to.  

Talk about their pain points, how the solution will make their life better and how the products will add value upfront. Having a conversation with customers is better than making “pitches” for them. Remember that the best way to get something done is to not push it intentionally. Focus on the efficiencies and effectiveness and let nature take over. 

Conclusion

To sum it up, short-term and day-to-day numbers strategy is the thing of the past and no longer a viable option. There is only one way to generate and retain business and that is giving compelling reasons to the customers to ask and look for you. Be so indispensable that customers ring you up, hands-folded, asking you to serve them. 

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