Sales Truth

Debunk the Myths. Apply Powerful Principles. Win More New Sales.

Mike Weinberg

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781595557544
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

Become a better salesperson by learning to debunk the sales myths and focus your strategy on a proven approach that will drive the results you want.

Can succeeding in sales be as simple as hooking up the latest CRM tool or perfecting your social media profiles and waiting for qualified leads to show up in your inbox? Are you having trouble believing what the new self-proclaimed "experts" post on LinkedIn and beginning to question their proclamation that everything in sales has changed?

The one constant in the world of sales is the noise from self-titled experts and thought leaders informing you of the latest tools, tricks, and strategies that you should utilize. However, ironically, the more modern solutions you adopt, the harder it is to get results.

Bestselling author and sales expert Mike Weinberg offers a wake-up call to salespeople and sales leaders on how to bypass the noise so you can start winning more, new sales.

In Sales Truth, Weinberg shares some of the truths you'll learn including:

• Many self-proclaimed sales experts lack clients, credibility, and a track record of helping sellers achieve breakthrough results.
• The number of "likes" a sales improvement article receives is often inversely proportional to its accuracy or helpfulness to?a seller or sales team.
• What has worked exceedingly well in sales and sales management for the past couple of decades is still the (not so) secret to sales success today.

Look no further than Weinberg's powerful principles and proven strategies to help you become a professional sales master and create more new sales opportunities.

PART I

The #Truth About the “Experts”

CHAPTER 1

Truth, What Is Truth?

I have spent such a ridiculous amount of time on airplanes this past year (often mulling over ideas for this book) that it’s only fitting I am writing the first chapter on a flight to South Africa. After a day to recover from this twenty-four-hour journey, I’ll be doing what I pretty much do every week—sharing blunt observations with business leaders, executives, sales managers, and sales–people about why they are not winning as many New Sales as they’d like, and then providing simple, practical, powerful fixes to help them create a healthy, high-performance sales culture and close more new business. Said differently, I tell them the truth about sales.

It’s an honor and a privilege and seems to have become my calling—speaking #SalesTruth to sales leaders and salespeople.

Who Are You to Declare What’s True?

I get it. It’s nervy and could certainly be perceived as self-righteous to declare that you’ve got the corner on the truth about something as big and important as sales. Please hear me on this: I don’t have the corner on the truth and would never claim I did. When I observe, consult, or coach an executive or salesperson, or facilitate a workshop or training session, I learn something new Every. Single. Day. That is why I absolutely love what I do. I am always learning, and I get to experience firsthand what is working in sales and sales management, and what is not. Then I get to share those observations with my readers and clients.

Those who know me, read my books and blog, or follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn are keenly aware (and even appreciate) that I simply call it like I see it. Yes, on occasion, I speak and write in extremes to make a point, often in an attempt to deliver a wake-up call, hoping to swing the pendulum back toward the center, and that is exactly my hope in writing this book.

The amount of noise and flat-out disinformation about sales and sales management are at an all-time high. It was bad seven years ago, so bad—particularly surrounding prospecting and developing new business—that I was motivated to write my first book, New Sales. Simplified. And, amazingly, as hard as it is to believe, the confusion and chaos are even worse today.

There has never been more confusion, frankly, because there have never been more theories and opinions and so many (free) channels to broadcast this disinformation. Self-proclaimed sales “experts” and “thought leaders” have sprung up everywhere—many of whom have amassed significant followings by preaching popular nonsense that tickles the ears of sales leaders and sellers craving an easy-button or magic fix. Point out the stupidity, inaccuracy, and inconsistency of what these “experts” are posting, and they are quick to reply defensively, pointing to the number of “likes” their articles receive. To quote my friend and author of High-Profit Prospecting, Mark Hunter, “Salespeople cannot take likes and clicks to the bank.” And I have joked that the credibility of many of today’s faux sales improvement gurus is inversely proportional to the number of people who “like” their posts. Translation: Popularity does not equate to the helpfulness/usefulness/effectiveness of the information presented. In fact, it’s often quite the opposite.

Everything Has Not Changed

Many of today’s nouveau “experts” love to tell us that everything has changed. It’s a dangerous new world and all the rules have changed, they claim. Nothing that used to work in sales or sales management still works today. Nothing. Traditional approaches, techniques, and methodologies are no longer effective. In fact, they proffer that if you dare even try to deploy old-school, traditional methods, you’re not just an idiot bound to fail but also a Luddite from the Dark Ages who deserves to be ridiculed. And if you think that I might be exaggerating even a bit here, see the examples in the next chapter.

What’s so amusing and so irritating to me is that I see the exact opposite. The. Exact. Opposite.

The most effective executives, sales managers, and salespeople I observe are masters at the basics. They have perfected old-school, traditional approaches. Instead of constantly entertaining themselves by shopping for the latest, greatest, and trendiest new tool, toy, or trick, they stay with the tried-and-true, proven fundamentals of sales and sales leadership. Not sexy, but incredibly effective.

Let me make that point again from a different angle, because I desperately want you to digest this truth: Despite what you hear and read from today’s trendiest, self-proclaimed thought leaders, I have never seen a salesperson or sales team fail because they lack a recently invented sales tool, or because they had not yet adopted a newly created sales process.

I don’t know how to make this next point graciously or without coming across as arrogant, so I am just going to say it in abject frustration because I am so tired of the half-truths and false promises giving false hope to salespeople and managers: You would be hard-pressed to find a sales consultant/trainer/speaker who’s been on more airplanes and in more companies than I have the past few years. I have been around the globe helping sales teams in every industry—from mortgages to machinery, from plastics and polymers to payroll services, from defense to distribution, from big data to big trucks, and from SaaS (software as a service) to trash. And I can emphatically and unequivocally state that, regardless of what the so-called experts are writing on LinkedIn or quoting in their “studies,” it’s not their beloved, newfound tool or process that’s missing—it’s a solid execution of the basics. They can wax eloquently about their theories, brag about how many people “like” their posts, speak for free at the online virtual sales conferences, and cite supposedly valid research to their hearts’ content. I know what I am seeing and hearing with my own eyes and ears: The sales world is desperate for rigor and discipline around the fundamentals, not fancy new tricks.

Almost every week, I speak with leaders of struggling sales organizations who have spent crazy amounts of money and time buying into and then attempting to implement new tools and methods because they (wrongly or sadly) believed that the promised panacea would solve all that ails their sales. Well, the fact that they’re calling for help after spending (wasting) all those dollars, all that time, and all that energy chasing the shiny new [fill in this month’s hot sales topic here] sure says a lot, doesn’t it?

Let me make sure you are not reading more into this than I am writing. I am not declaring that you and your sales team don’t need tools, processes, or technology. Of course, you do. What I am most definitely stating is that the people winning big in sales today are doing so because they have mastered the basics, and those who are struggling, particularly in the area of developing new business and winning New Sales, are flailing because they are not executing the basics well. Despite loud protestations from many “experts,” the flat-out truth is that what has worked exceedingly well in sales and sales management for the past couple decades is still the (not so) secret to sales success today. As crazy as it may sound, if I introduced you to the top-performing salesperson at each of my clients across that eclectic mix of industries listed, you would see these top producers deploying the very same mindset, approaches, behaviors, and disciplines that I observed in top-producing salespeople five years ago, ten years ago, and fifteen years ago. #SalesTruth. The best sellers and the best leaders excel at the fundamentals of their job. They are masters at their craft, because they have mastered the basics.

Before we unpack these critical fundamentals in part II (“The #Truth About Winning More New Sales”), please indulge me a bit further as we take a look at the hypocrisy and nonsense preached by these dangerous, disingenuous “experts” who I believe are actually hurting, not helping, the sales community.

CHAPTER 2

Be Very Wary of the Nouveau Experts and False Teachers

I did not want to write this chapter, but my eyes and my conscience compelled me to. My intention here is not to be mean-spirited; it is simply to point out the bizarre inconsistencies between what some modern popular sales “experts” are proclaiming and what anyone who has succeeded in sales for any length of time, has successfully led a sales organization, or has a shred of common sense, knows is true.

The United States Department of Homeland Security, in an effort to keep the public vigilant about terrorism threats, has promoted this expression: If You See Something, Say Something. I like that. It’s simple. It’s catchy. It’s easy to remember.

Well, over the past five or so years, colleagues whom I trust and respect in the sales improvement industry and I have been seeing a lot of things causing us to do double takes. Practically every week, my partners in the OutBound Conference (Jeb Blount, Mark Hunter, Anthony Iannarino), and I exchange a handful of group text messages. One of us will read or hear something from an “expert” that is blatantly false, misleading, and often dangerous. We’ll pass along the article to one another so we can collectively shake our heads and, for a while, one or more of us would challenge the misinformation publicly—either by publishing our own counterargument in an article, or, by simply posting a comment pointing out the inconsistency and absurdity being offered by the “expert.” Simply put, we were seeing something that didn’t look right and saying something to warn others.

The problem, we discovered, is that it’s very hard to win an intelligent argument with people untethered to the truth because their livelihood is tied to the agenda they are promoting. Yes, that sounds eerily close to the situation we have politically here in the United States, where there is no longer civil discourse or healthy debate about any hot political topic or candidate. But I’ll hold off going further into politics until chapter 4, where, against my better judgment, I am going to share powerful sales lessons from the 2016 US presidential election, because there is a lot of #SalesTruth to be gleaned. Please resist the temptation to jump ahead to see me risk my friendships and business by giving a sales coach’s perspective on the shocking election of Donald Trump as president. For now, let’s stick with taking on false teaching and misguided sales advice.

The other painful lesson I learned is that it is really, really, really hard to wage a battle online with people who have way too much time on their hands as they sit behind a keyboard and bury you with BS.

Those who are successful in the sales improvement industry are very busy. Beyond busy. We are buried by more opportunities for paying work than we can handle. And contrary to those who want to gauge #SalesTruth (and sales improvement effectiveness) by the number of likes they receive, the reality is that, in this business, the true measures of success for sales consultants, coaches, trainers, and speakers are travel, paid engagements, and time spent helping clients.

Watch Out for Sales Fads, Flavors of the Day, and Bandwagon Jumpers

In my previous book—Sales Management. Simplified.—I chastised sales leaders for our tendency to chase shiny new toys. As a group, we’re a gullible bunch and always looking for an edge. So, when we hear about a new thing—a slick tool, cool new process, or a potential quick fix—our FOMO (fear of missing out) kicks into high gear. We are typically quick to investigate and often too quick to go all in and adopt this new thing/approach/process/tool.

Well, you know whose FOMO is even worse than that of sales managers and salespeople? Yup. Sales improvement gurus! Nothing has been more entertaining in the last decade than watching people who make a living in the sales improvement industry jump on the bandwagon of each hot, trending sales fad and flavor of the day.

First, it was inbound. But at least with inbound, they called it what it was—marketing. Inbound marketing. Unlike the #socialselling-movement leaders who followed, the inbound marketers were not telling salespeople that they’d be better off doing marketing activities rather than sales activities.

Inbound was followed by the rapid rise of social selling, which “borrowed” many of its themes and principles from inbound marketing. This long-lived fad took on a life of its own, and it requires more than just a passing mention here. We will circle back to examine the bold claims many #socialselling “experts” have been preaching, and we will contrast those with what some actually practice to drive their own businesses.

A few years ago, the term sales enablement became trendy and garnered significant momentum, so much so that today we have an entire field of people and positions working under that banner and telling us that it is the future of selling. However, it’s a bit confusing since there have been regular attempts to define and redefine sales enablement and there appears to be zero agreement about exactly what it is and what it means. Try googling the term if you’re curious—you’ll get a myriad of “expert” opinions. And feel free to read articles summarizing the Sales Enablement Society Annual Conference.

I read a great and refreshingly honest post on Membrain.com’s blog written by a founding member (one of a hundred founding members) and Dallas Chapter president of the Sales Enablement Society. He summarized the 2017 conference beautifully, and his transparency in reporting the agenda and key takeaways only furthers the point that even the “experts” are not sure what sales enablement is. He jokes that those who tell you they do are likely attempting to sell you something! (See the blog at https://tinyurl.com/y8tgnk5s, where the writer admits, “Ask 10 companies what sales enablement means, and you’re likely to get 13 different answers.”)

Zackly my point! There’s this hot bandwagon under whose banner all sales executives are supposed to march. We are supposed to be terrified about what might happen to our sales organizations and results if we don’t jump all in on sales enablement, yet several years in, even the movement’s leaders have trouble articulating its defining features, core values, and best practices. Forgive my reaction, but to me, it feels like an academic discussion among intellectuals and a giant time-suck. Beware of any loosely defined group referring to itself as a society.

In 2017, account-based marketing and account-based selling became all the rage. Today’s “experts” who have parked themselves under this newer umbrella promise us that account-based everything is the future of the sales profession. The only thing more common than articles about account-based selling are seeing sales improvement gurus rebranding themselves as ABS “experts.” I haven’t yet devoted the time or energy to look too deeply into this latest, greatest, best-thing-since-sliced-bread phenomenon. What I have read sounds intelligent and also very traditional. The customer should be our focus. We should be most concerned about the customer’s needs, desires, people, processes, structure. And we, as sellers, should focus on aligning ourselves, our process, and our approach to the account. Account-based selling. Not exactly earth shattering. That’s why several of my sales improvement friends are collectively scratching their heads, curious why so many gurus have chosen to go all in, hitching themselves to this bandwagon. ABS is so hot right now that every time I open LinkedIn I expect to find a listing of “The Top Fifty Must-Follow Account-Based Selling Influencers.” By the time this book gets released, I am sure that top fifty list will exist.

More recently, there’s been a rapid ascent of “experts” that An...