Why Desperate Salespeople Fail (Universal Law of Need)

 By Jeb Blount

One of my favorite quotes from Thoreau goes something like this: Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

This quote is a succinct description of what I call the Universal Law of Need: The more you need something, the less likely it is that you will get it.

In sales you get upfront and personal with the Universal Law of Need when lack of activity has caused your pipeline to become depleted:   

•      Because you have nothing in your pipeline you're not closing deals.

•     Because you are not closing anything your sales manager is on your back and riding you        hard.
•     Because your job is on the line when you are not selling, you desperately scramble to survive.
•     And, when all of your hope for survival rests on closing one, two or even a handful of deals the probability of failure increases exponentially.

Here’s an Example:

Janice has not been consistent with daily prospecting activity. Many days she would delude herself into believing she was working when she wasn’t. She'd drive all over town just to knock on a few doors, she stayed busy with paperwork, doing “research” on prospects, chasing down customer service issues that others could have handled, or chatted up her fellow salespeople over coffee.

Because she found anything other to do than prospect she has only a handful of opportunities left in her pipeline. Several of the deals she was counting on have pushed off decisions to next quarter or have signed with a competitor. Now, with the end of the quarter looming, and only a couple of viable prospects left in her pipeline, Janice is under tremendous pressure. She desperately needs one of these deals to close!

As Janice becomes more desperate to get a sale she comes face to face with a cruel reality: desperation magnifies the impact of the Universal Law of Need and virtually guarantees that she won't close the deals she must have in order to survive.

There are several reasons why desperation diminishes the probability that Janice will fail to get the sales she needs. The first is governed by the Law of Attraction which states that what you focus your thoughts on you are most likely to get. Janice is desperate and instead of directing her thoughts towards what she requires for success, she focuses her thoughts on what will happen to her if she fails, thereby attracting failure.

The next problem with desperate need is that other people can sense Janice’s desperation. Through her actions, tone of voice, words and body language she sends the message that she is desperate and weak. Prospects naturally repel salespeople who are needy, gravitating instead to Sales Professionals who exude confidence.

Finally, in her desperation Janice has become emotional, illogical, and begins making poor decisions. These poor decisions exacerbate an already bad situation leaving her stressed, miserable, and deeper in her hole.

Success Comes to Those too Busy to be Looking for It

Now consider another Sales Professional, Sandra, who is consistently prospecting, networking, getting referrals, and systematically moving her accounts through her pipeline. Her hard work has resulted in more than thirty qualified opportunities in her pipe.

Will they all close? Not likely, yet, Sandra feels little pressure. She is consistently replacing the prospects that fall out her pipeline with new opportunities – keeping it full. As a result her sales have been regular and on target. She knows exactly what she will close tomorrow, next week, and next month. She has also earned the trust of her sales manager because she consistently delivers on her forecast.

Under little pressure she gets a huge boost when several of the deals that were long shots suddenly go her way. With this unexpected gravy she blows away her quota and earns a huge bonus. She didn't need this extra sales gravy yet it dropped into her lap.

Thoreau said that success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. This why desperate people often fail in sales and almost everything else in life.

I believe that the sales success belongs to salespeople who are too busy to be desperate. When you consistently do the right things in sales top level performance is inevitable.

Culled from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/