đ„ Hot Take
Your Prospects Donât Need an Education
Yet, most sellers think they do. In fact, itâs the #1 self-limiting belief shared among the more than 2 million sellers assessed by Objective Management Group. Based on their sales data, those who donât educate sell more.
What happens when we enter an interaction with a prospect, with the primary goal of educating them? We fail to listen to them. That means we donât find out their top priorities. We teach instead of selling. Yet so many still believe they must educate their prospect in order to sell to them.
More than 91% of assessed sellers hold this belief. How much is your team trying to educate your prospects?
đ This Link Itself Isnât ImportantâŠ
âŠbut the date on it is.
Weâve known since 2013 (!) that prospects are cutting us out of the buying journey. Theyâre learning everything they need to know on their own. Back then, it was estimated that about 60% of the journey was over before they made first contact. Today, estimates are between 70 and 85%.
Worse yet, we split that time between our competitors, who also got contacted at the same time. Itâs more important than ever to make our way to deals earlier than ever before.
đĄ Big Idea
Nobody is (Formally) Taught How to Sell
Depending on who you ask there are between 5,700,000 (random internet article) and 13,000,000 salespeople (US Bureau of Labor Statistics) in the United States alone. According to one university that offers it, there are only 20 higher education institutions that offer a degree in sales. Most of the programs are fairly new.
Compare that to anthropology, which 298 schools will give you a degree in. There are about 7,600 anthropologists in the US.
This means that itâs likely that not one of the sellers working for us have a formal education in selling. Everything is learned on their own.
What do we owe the folks on our front lines? Should we be doing more to help them out?
â Quote
âIf you learn from defeat, then you havenât really lost.â
â Zig Ziglar