Jeffrey Gitomer Are you a sales leader or a sales chaser?
I grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey. We lived at the corner of the busiest intersection in town. I was 15 years old when we got a puppy named “Thing-a-ma-jig.” The cutest, friendliest mutt-puppy you ever saw.
One morning, about a week later, I opened the front door to get the paper — and the puppy got loose. She started running as fast as she could — right for the traffic.
I started chasing her — hopelessly for five blocks, across busy streets — my little dog was gone — I was panicked (and out of breath). I decided to run back home and ask my dad to use the car and find the dog.
I ran straight to my parent’s bedroom. “Dad — dad,” I panted, “The — dog’s — run — away — car — chase — it!”
“OK son,” he said,” “Let’s jump in the car and find your puppy.”
I turned to run out the door – took one step and tripped over the dog. You see, as soon as I started to run the other way, the dog chased me!
Chasing your prospects too hard? Trying to push too hard for the sale? Follow up with a thinly disguised: “Is the money ready? Can I come over and get the money?”
You figure that the best way is to be assertive and tell him why your company and product (or service) are the greatest. Right? — Wrong, sales breath! Try the opposite approach. Try running the other way by being attractive through your value. Create the law of attraction, and — let the prospect chase you. It’s the best sales and follow-up technique you’ve ever experienced. And the easiest way to sell is to buy.
EARLY WARNING SIGNAL: No returned phone call. If prospects are not returning your call — whose fault is that? You’re chasing too hard. They’re running away. You couldn’t get their interest — you couldn’t get them (they aren’t interested enough) to chase you.
Other tell-tale symptoms that the chase is going the wrong way:
- You are still cold calling (or direct emailing) to get prospects.
- You’re uncomfortable about calling. You are unprepared, or you have not established the needs of the prospect and are unsure of their status, or you don’t have much rapport with the prospect, or some of each.
- You are having trouble making appointments
- Prospects just won’t decide, and you keep hounding them.
- You’ve followed up a few times, and now you’re searching for a reason to call them — but you can’t think of one.
- The prospect is giving you a bunch of lame excuses. And worse, you are accepting them.
If chasing people too hard makes them run away, why are you continuing to do it? The way I got my puppy-dog to come home was — I led the dog home. You can either lead the field or be in the field (some people are in left field). Your challenge is to lead your prospects so they will follow you — and turn into customers.
Here’s the simple solution: (NOTE: I didn’t say easy, I said simple. There are no easy solutions.) Create a better market position for yourself. Are your prospects and customers reading about you – or getting information they can use written by you — in their social media accounts? Are they gaining helpful information on your web site? Have you recently spoken at their annual meeting? Or are you thinking “brochure,” “appointment,” and “product demo” or “corporate video.” Wrong thoughts. Those are competitive thoughts and lead to a dissertation by you and your competition as to who is better – and always lead to a battle over price. A battle that everyone who fights in it, loses.
To create the position you seek: Getting qualified people to call you – you’d better get beyond the typical marketing materials.
ASK YOURSELF: Where are people seeing you or talking about you?
TELL YOURSELF: It takes time to create position.
REWARD YOURSELF: But once you do, people call you to buy, instead of you calling them to sell.
The secret formula? The magic potion? Real simple… whatever you do with your outreach, always have a prime objective at your core. Here is the one that has worked for me:
PRIME OBJECTIVE: Put yourself in front of people that can say “yes” to you and deliver value first.
About the Author:
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His real-world ideas and content are also available as online courses at www.GitomerLearningAcademy.com. For information about training and seminars visit Are you a sales leader or a sales chaser? or email Jeffrey at [email protected] or call him at 704 333-1112.
