Much like in baseball, the number of failures in sales usually far surpass the successes: losing out on transactional sales, projects, programs, and sometimes even clients. When there is a loss, it is always a good idea to conduct a post mortem to understand the why of the loss. Understanding the why allows the opportunity to learn from the losing experience and make adjustments for future improvements.
However, far too often, salespeople spend an inordinate amount of time lamenting about the loss of an opportunity, not a particular sale: the prospect who won’t take a meeting, not getting that invite to participate in an RFP, or the “client” who always buys from your competition. Before you spend your most valuable commodity – time – you need to ask yourself if you ever really had the sale to begin with.
When you’ve truly lost a sale, it’s critical to do a post mortem to understand the why. This is where you can leverage the relationship to recognize the cause and develop a solution. Conversely, mourning the loss of a sale you never had is a waste of time and energy because you will likely never understand the reasons behind the actions of the prospect simply because there is no relationship.
Baseball players who never get up to bat don’t waste time griping about a strikeout – that’s reserved for the ones who actually had an opportunity to swing. Only when you actually step up to the plate, swing and miss, should you invest the time and effort to understand the why of the failure. Anything else is simply coaching from the bench.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 18 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, immediate past president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), vice president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.