Anastasia enjoys going to networking events, which is her main strategy for marketing her services. She’s highly professional, friendly and out-going, and has a sunny disposition. She loves people, which is why she was drawn to protect them and their assets. Unknowingly, until recently, she was a gambler. She played the numbers game.
Is Sales a Numbers Game?
Professional salespeople have heard the aphorism that it takes a lot of No’s before you get a Yes. This game requires filling the sales funnel and, over time, eventually converting a few of the prospects into clients, low odds. Most sales training systems teach various techniques to increase this probability. However, the majority of salespeople are stuck playing the percentages, like Anastasia. She would introduce herself to as many people as possible and then diligently follow-up with phone calls and appointments. Everyone was identified as a potential client, which made for big numbers but low success. It simply exposed her to more people and more rejections, and it took a great deal of effort to “win” a sale.
When Anastasia learned about the 4 buying styles she realized that she had set herself up for gamblers ruin. She treated everyone the same. Consequently, she naturally connected with only 1 out of 4 people, 25%. That meant that 75% of the time she was placing bets on the wrong hand. No wonder why she experienced a lot of No’s.
She also realized that certain buying styles aroused her judgment. If she perceived someone as exaggerating or being super-friendly, she tried to tone it down. Unwittingly, she was foiling her bets. She decided to mend her ways and match her prospect’s buying style.
Change The Odds
The following week she had a meeting with a prospect. He was super excited, highly animated, and full of bigger-than-life ideas. Seven days earlier, she would have labeled his talk as “hype,” and her immediate reaction would have been to curb his enthusiasm and bring him back to reality. Such encounters in the past invariably ended with the Action buyer replying, “I’ll think it over” and she would fail to secure the business.
This time, she squashed her instinct. Instead, she matched his excitement and shared his dreams. Then something extraordinary happened. She got the sale!
