There Are No Shortcuts in Sales
When you are driving cross country and your passenger suggests a great short cut, what goes through your mind? Personally I have experienced far too many shortcuts, which actually added miles to already long journeys. On the surface, shortcuts are a welcome idea, but like over promoted miracle weight loss tablets, they often fail to deliver, and frequently cause more problems than you had in the first place.
In many ways, sales or more specifically the entire sales process is like one of those long cross country journeys, and as with many things in life, the urge to take shortcuts is ever present.
For instance, at the beginning of the sales process, many salespeople will cut out the often tedious and (apparently) unproductive sales prospecting function, which in the short term saves them a lot of effort. Long term though, they will inevitably end up attempting to sell to prospects who are not sufficiently qualified, which subsequently causes the entire sales process to break down, resulting in wasted resource, frustration and limited new business.
Another example I frequently come across, is caused by ignorant or misdirected sales managers when they unduly pressurise their sales teams to move prospects through the sales pipeline at a speed that suits their own sales targets, but has nothing to do with the prospects circumstances. The end result is rarely beneficial for either prospect or salesperson, as more often than not the prospect will “go cold”, or alternatively they will sense an advantage and use this to negotiate a better deal with the seller. This short term perspective may well make the sales management look good in the short term, but long term it damages the sale pipeline and reduces the sales margins.
In short, there are no shortcuts in sales.