During one of our annual sales events, a colleague from another part of the country was holding court at the opulent lobby bar of the hotel where we were all sequestered, boasting about closing the biggest deal of the previous year. I squeezed into the group to listen and glean some pearls of wisdom about closing a mega deal. Instead, during the very same conversation, he complained about having no chance to make his sales goal this year.
Still fairly new to enterprise sales and a bit in awe of the top sellers in the company, finding an opportunity to learn from the best was always top of mind for me. I observed these folks — the ones who stood at the pinnacle of sales performance within the firm and dwarfed my career earnings with any given commission on a single deal — with curiosity and a dose of jealousy. I listened intently during these opportunities to engage with my peers and ask questions about how they broke into an account, all while looking for ways I could incorporate any attributes of their success into my own sales opportunities.
Ramblings of a Self-Anointed Selling Genius
Back at the fancy hotel bar, the salesman who closed the deal of the year made sure everyone knew that the Big Deal closed exclusively due to his selling prowess. He conveniently forgot about the dozen or so people on the team and all the help he received from the company’s top executives.
I get that some people have big egos, but ignoring the team that made a life-changing event possible is just disgusting. The shallowness of the excessive bragging belied some other issues hiding just below the surface.
There he stood, throwing his hands up in disgust that he wouldn’t be making his numbers this year. Whining about account lists is something most salespeople do very well, present company included. Even so, complaining after just being named the number one salesperson in the company was simply wrong. He blamed his assumed predetermined fate for this year on his manager.
As I got to know more people in the sales organization and discovered who the real players were, it was clear this fella’s manager was no one’s fool. He’d limited his account list to just three companies.
The previous year, the top guy had seven accounts but only had activity in the one he closed. Granted, the one he closed saved the quarter for the company, but the manager was looking to the future, too. The Selling Genius’s client list for that year consisted of the company where he’d just closed a huge deal plus two raw prospects squarely in the sweet spot of the industries that most needed our software.
Really Understanding Your Sales Staff
The manager for this district turned out to be exceptional at reading his salespeople, their actions and their lack of action. If his account executives weren’t making progress in one of their assigned accounts, he reassigned them to someone else.
Most of his sales staff were top performers (or at least they appeared to be), but no one liked the annual account juggling. The real top performers never lost their best prospects or clients, though, because their efforts proved their progress.
The sales guy who closed the Mega Deal turned out to be a pretender and not really a top performer. Maybe the money from his giant deal made him lazy. Regardless, he genuinely believed the company owed him only the best of opportunities, where he’d use his selling genius to swoop in and close the deal.
The grunt work to uncover opportunities and grow his network of contacts at prospective clients was below his pay grade. He complained that the company who licensed one of the largest deals in our company’s history was sold out and he needed better opportunities.
The Real Deal Salespeople
After a few years of complaining and no new deals, this account executive found himself without a job. The client he claimed to be sold out was assigned to one of the real top sales performers. Over the next three years, the real deal account executive closed over 140% more in licenses revenue compared to the original mega deal.
As a lifelong sales guy, I can say without a doubt that it’s extremely hard to stay at the top of your game year in and year out. It’s difficult to spend time trying to wedge open a door at new prospects that would display no interest in you or what you’re selling rather than simply spend time working with friendly existing clients where the door is always wide open.
Sales Management’s Duty
Sales management at all levels must apply the appropriate pressure to ensure all their players don’t lose sight of the long game of sales. The long game is consistency. Selling consistency happens by regularly doing the dirty work even while you’re in the midst of closing significant deals. If you get consumed by closing the deal in front of you, there won’t be any deals to follow it. If the deal you’re focused on doesn’t close, then you’ll find yourself in selling Hell and maybe in search of another job.
