Says Who? The Sales Advice Repeated Without Question

"The goal of every doctor's appointment should be to prescribe medication."

"Surgeons should always operate within 24 hours of diagnosing a problem."

"Every patient needs at least five follow-up visits before they're considered successfully treated."

Imagine someone posting those as universal truths for the medical profession.

Doctors and surgeons would rightfully think the person was an idiot.

Different patients, conditions, and goals.

Absurd.

But wait… just read the formerly useful and formerly business network called Linkedin, and you’ll see these kinds of things said about sales every day.

Proclamations made as if they are gospel for everyone. Then others, often newbies, enthusiastically repeat them as though they're laws of nature.

"The only goal of a prospecting call is to get an appointment and get off the phone. Never sell."

Really? Says who?

How in the hell does someone who knows nothing about another business, what they sell, to whom, what they are trying to accomplish, and a host of other possible unknown things, get to tell EVERYONE in sales what their goal on a prospecting call is?

And that goes for a lot of what's said, written, and believed about sales.

I've been poking holes in these myths for my entire 40+ years in this business. Let's look at the ones that have been around forever, and some of the more recent, tech-fueled ones.

Before we get into the examples, consider something about the word "sales" itself.

It can describe the five-year-olds walking the beach at a resort in Mexico selling candy to tourists, all the way up to an enterprise sales rep negotiating seven- and eight-figure contracts for complex products and services.

And just about everything imaginable in between.

Different products, buyers, industries, prices, sales cycles, circumstances, and objectives.

So how could ANY definitive statement about what salespeople should always or never do, or some precise percentage about what supposedly happens in sales, possibly apply to all of them?

Yet we see these declarations constantly from trainers, gurus, self-appointed experts, and the guy who's four months into his first sales job and already cranking out regurgitated "content" so he can build his "personal brand."

And people believe them. Worse, they repeat them.

It's absurd.

Here's one of my personal favorites, which I started questioning back when I was in college.

I sold advertising for a small weekly special-interest newspaper. My sales manager constantly preached, "Set appointments so you can get in front of people. Don't sell over the phone."

Even as a naive college kid who didn't know much about selling, that seemed pretty stupid to me.

If I had someone on the phone, we got into a conversation, and they wanted to buy advertising, why would I make an appointment, drive over to see them, and spend more time closing a deal that was already there?

I could use that time to call someone else.

So I broke the rule.

And sold more advertising than anyone ever had in that position.

I didn't tell my manager what I was doing until he noticed I was spending an awful lot of time in the office, on the phone, instead of driving and on appointments.

He looked the other way with me, probably thinking I was some kind of unicorn.

But he continued telling everyone else to get out there and make appointments.

Apparently, the rule was more important than the results. (We see that a lot today, too.)

Oh well.

Here's one you've probably seen:

"80% of sales require five follow-ups."

Really? Eighty percent of ALL sales?

Selling what? To whom? At what price? And what exactly constitutes a follow-up?

That statistic has been floating around the sales world for years. It's been repeated in countless articles, presentations, and social media posts. Yet try finding the original research that supposedly proves it.

Good luck.

Here's another:

"Only 3% of your market is ready to buy right now."

The 3% figure is commonly attributed to Chet Holmes and his Buyer Pyramid concept. There's some useful thinking behind that model. But where's the evidence that precisely 3% of buyers are ready to purchase in every market, for every product, at every price?

There isn't a universal percentage that can tell you that.

Are we really supposed to believe that precisely 3% of people are ready to buy everything from candy on a beach to a multimillion-dollar software system?

Come on. I told the story in last Thursday’s TeleTips about the storms we had here a couple of weeks ago. I guarantee more than 3% of home and commercial property owners were in the market for storm-damage related products and services.

And while we're at it, beware of the people who tell you exactly how many calls, emails, or touches you MUST make before a prospect will respond.

I'm always curious how they arrived at those magic numbers. Did they study every possible product, market, and buyer? Or did they hear someone else say it and figure it sounded good enough to repeat?

Then there are the commandments.

"Never leave a voicemail."

"Always ask for the appointment."

"Never discuss price on the first call."

"Never use a script."

"Never accept 'send me information.'"

I've heard variations of these for decades.

I can make a reasonable argument for doing every one of those things in certain situations. I can also make an argument against them in others.

Take voicemail. of course I've had people return my calls because of a voicemail. I've also left many more that didn't get returned. But the idea that nobody should ever leave one? Nutzo.

Or the advice to never discuss price on an initial call. What if the prospect asks? What if knowing the price is essential to determining whether there's even a potential fit?

Are we supposed to dodge the question because somebody on LinkedIn said NEVER?

I can laugh at some of these proclamations. After more than 40 years in this business, I've heard enough of them to fill a book. Probably several.

But there's a serious downside.

People believe this stuff. And it can hurt them.

Especially newer salespeople who haven't yet developed the experience or judgment to question what they're hearing.

They see someone with a big following confidently declare that you should NEVER do something, or that 87% of salespeople do this or that, and they assume the person must know what they're talking about.

Then they change what they're doing based on advice that might be completely wrong for their situation.

Someone could be having perfectly good conversations with prospects, but now they're rushing to get appointments because an expert told them that's the ONLY goal of a prospecting call.

Or they stop leaving voicemails that were actually generating callbacks.

Or they keep pestering prospects because they read that most sales happen after some magical number of follow-ups.

And when their results suffer, they might assume they're the problem.

Worse, they might be told they're not following the rule correctly, so they double down on something that wasn't appropriate for their situation in the first place.

Blindly following rules also keeps people from learning to think for themselves.

You can memorize every sales technique ever invented and still be lousy at selling if you don't know when, why, and how to use them.

Ignoring sales advice would be a strange recommendation from someone who's made a living providing it.

I have strong opinions about what works, and I've developed processes and principles that I've taught for decades.

And yeah, I know what some of you are thinking.

"Art, haven't YOU told people to NEVER ask a prospect, 'What does your company do?'"

Yep. Guilty.

And I stand by that advice. If you're prospecting to a business, you should have done enough homework to know what they do before you call.

The key difference is, I'll explain WHY I recommend something, and you can evaluate whether it makes sense for your situation. And if you've got a legitimate exception, I'm happy to hear it.

That's how good sales advice should work.

So here's what I suggest.

Whenever you see a sales statistic, especially one with a very specific percentage, ask where it came from. Is there an actual study, and who was in it? Does it really support the claim for what you sell?

If someone can't provide a credible source, don't treat the number as fact.

And whenever you hear ALWAYS, NEVER, EVERYONE, NO ONE, or THE ONLY GOAL, see if you can come up with a legitimate exception.

I'll bet you can.

Then ask yourself the most important question:

Does this advice make sense for my situation?

You might discover that it's excellent advice. Great. Use it.

Or you might realize that it doesn't apply to what you're doing. That's fine, too.

And please, before you pass along one of those impressive-sounding statistics or proclamations, make sure you know whether it's actually true.

Because once you repeat it, you're putting your own credibility behind it.

I've always believed that the best sales professionals understand WHY they're doing what they're doing. They can evaluate a situation and make an intelligent decision instead of blindly following somebody else's rules.

And according to a study I just made up, 94.7% of the people who do that are more successful.

You can quote me on that.

Actually, please don't.

Exciting news!

As of today, I have my fingertips on the keyboard, pressure-testing the brand-new Smart Calling AI Coach, fresh out of the packaging.

Before we release it commercially to sales pros, I want to be sure it's doing exactly what we intended it to do. And that means putting it through its paces, trying to trip it up, and making sure the advice it gives is actually useful in real selling situations. So far, it is blowing me away. I feel like I am working with a smarter version of myself. Not too tough to do, but anyway…

What I can tell you is that one component will be available before the entire system.

It will help you create a personalized, compelling Smart Calling opening for your prospecting calls, based on who you're calling, what you sell, the value you might be able to provide, and what you know about the prospect.

With no apologizing, permission-begging, or low self-worth gimmicks that create resistance.

Instead of staring at the phone wondering how to start, you'll have a professionally structured opening designed to get a conversation started, along with a couple of alternatives you can choose from and adapt to your own style. AND a voice mail version.

And it will be completely FREE.

Stay tuned. Coming very soon!

Make it your best week ever!