Avoiding the Activity Trap
by Jeb Brooks
Many salespeople make the assumption that activity leads to results. “As long as I’m doing something,” they argue, “results will come.”
This is a mistake. It’s the best way to get stuck in the activity trap. The activity trap occurs when you begin working too hard to make the sale. Sales is much more simple than a lot of salespeople make it out to be.
Above all, your interactions must be meaningful. If all you’re doing on a call with a prospect is saying ‘hello,’ all you’ll hear is ‘hell no.’ Instead, your activities need to fall into one of these four productive buckets:
- They educate your prospects.
- They uncover essential information about your prospect.
- They reveal pivotal information about your solution to your prospect.
- They close opportunities (for the good or bad).
First, Educational activities provide information to your prospects that make them more receptive to your messaging. These kinds of activities help them understand the business impact you can have on their operation. They help them understand that you have something meaningful to say to them. Examples include:
- Sending useful content (e.g., articles, whitepapers, etc.) to them
- Sponsoring roundtable discussions for your prospects to meet your happy customers
- Publishing pamphlets about your solution
- Providing well-documented case studies to your prospects
Activities that allow you to uncover essential information about your prospects are some of the most important. The most common is the face-to-face (or phone-to-phone) meeting. These probing meetings allow you to ask meaningful questions that help (1) demonstrate your expertise in their field and (2) gather information you need to make a meaningful recommendation to them. They include:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Sales Interviews
Revealing your recommended solution to your prospect is — obviously — essential. Doing it, though, requires more than just activity. Instead, meaningful sales presentations are carefully targeted to your prospects particular situation. This can be done in any number of ways, but is dependent on effectively uncovering practical information in your probing meeting.
- Webinars
- Formal Presentations
- Demonstrations
- Tours
Finally, the most directly meaningful of all sales activities are those that close business. This is typically in some kind of interaction between a salesperson and a prospect-turned-customer. Alternatively, you might discover that a particular prospect isn’t a good fit for your solution. This, too, can be good because it allows you to move on.
If your “activity” doesn’t fall into one of those four buckets, it’s probably wasteful. Many outside reps believe that activity begets results. With one slight change, the statement becomes true:
The Right Activity Begets Meaningful Results.
Jeb Brooks is Executive Vice President of The Brooks Group, one of the world’s Top Ten Sales Training Firms as ranked by Selling Power Magazine. He’s a sought-after commentator on sales and sales management issues, having appeared in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal. Jeb authored the second edition of the book “Perfect Phrases for the Sales Call.” He regularly writes for The Brooks Group’s popular Sales Blog <http://www.brooksgroup.com/blog>. Follow him on Twitter: @JebBrooks
One of my colleagues shared with me years ago “People confuse motion with progress and activity with results.” Just left a LinkedIn discussion where the individual was commenting about all the free consulting and how free to show value is not a good strategy. I respectfully disagreed because free can be a good tactic when it is very, very strategic in nature based upon the overall strategic plan and specifically the marketing plan.
Good guest post, reminds me of the old adage “Build it and they will come.”
Comment by thecoachlee — January 24, 2012 @ 11:22 am |
Jeb: great points. To wit I’d add a slightly divergent point of view: it’s not the activities that you do that matter most; it’s the buyer impacts of the things you do from the activities you’re engaged in. For example: instead of pointing to the importance of being engaged in activities that educate a prospect, I’m more interested in seeing whether or not (in how I execute) my efforts to do so create real value for the prospect. As proven by whether or not they choose to have another conversation with me. The most valuable activities for me to be engaged in are the ones via which I’ve a chance to create real buyer value (like the ones you’ve identified). The success with which I’m doing so is something I need fast feedback on. Otherwise I run the risk of apparently doing all the right things, yet never making any progress because I’m failing to execute with impact. Avoiding the activity trap requires digesting some learning cheese. Trust this adds some value – John
Comment by John Cousineau — January 24, 2012 @ 7:42 pm |
Thank you both for your comments! Paul has built a fantastic blog and I’m honored to post here. John, you make an excellent point — it’s far too easy to forget about “buyer impact.” And that’s always a mistake. If you aren’t bringing value to your prospects (and customers), you’ll fail as a salesperson.
Comment by JebBrooks — January 24, 2012 @ 8:32 pm |