Why To Use The "New Math Of Sales Excellence"

By Gil Cargill, Sales Acceleration Coach

The purpose of this report is to explain why the typical sales organization that believes that sales is a numbers game is correct, but not accurate.  I know my words may be a little confusing, but bear with me for just a moment.  As always, sales is a numbers/activity game, but the numbers have changed.

If you adhere to the old rules, you will be lost in a sea of "peddlers" all claiming that their product or service is superior to anything else on the market.  If, on the other hand, you adhere to the New Math of Sales Excellence^®, you will have a distinct and permanent competitive advantage over your peers.

Before I go into detail regarding the new approach to sales training, let's examine why existing sales training philosophies consistently fail.  Study after study has shown that sales training has a positive impact on a sales force that lasts for approximately 5.3 weeks.  Most sales training does not take into consideration the processes associated with finding, acquiring and retaining customers.

Granted, all sales training starts with the false assumption that a sales representative magically has an appointment and/or an interview with a prospect.  The missing ingredient at the beginning of the sales process is how that salesperson gets in front of the customer.  Traditional sales training attempts to change the behavior of an adult.  And, if you stop and think about it, that premise in and of itself is somewhat ludicrous.

There is no sales training, motivation and/or threat that can make an adult want to be more successful than he/she wants to be.  Yet and still, sales trainers and decision-makers that hire those trainers claim that that can be done.  Stop and think about it.  What behavior manifested by an adult has ever been changed by the application of an external force for one, two or three days?  The answer to that question is none.

Adults change our behavior when and only when we want to eliminate the discomfort that the undesirable behavior creates.  For instance, take a look at the issue of New Year's resolutions.  One hundred percent of New Year's resolutions are focused on changing one behavior or another.  Salespeople will say things like, "I'm going to work smarter this year."  Or, "I'm going to work harder this year."

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