“You don’t really know until you ask and you should never be afraid to ask” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 357
What happens if you assume that c-level executives are too busy to meet with you or have other priorities that are more important. Do you then not call them an actually ask?
Join the conversation below and check that fantastic post from Alfie on LinkedIn!
Alfie Marsh LinkedIn Post
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is inspired by a post from Alfie Marsh on LinkedIn and the conversation that came out of it. Alfie wrote a great post that suggested if you want to improve you should look at your sales leaderboard and find the 3 top-performing reps from 2019 and get 1:1 time with them to learn in detail about what they’re doing. Basically what I do in my Sales Success Stories podcast interviews, but one on one for yourself.
Great idea, great advice and there’s a link to that post for you at DailySales.Tips/357 but this tip isn’t about that. Instead, it’s about the comments. There were quite a few people who said, “Oh yeah that’s great”, but top reps are busy being top reps and they won’t take the time to talk to me.
And that worries me a lot, because my guess is it’s not based on experience, but based on fear and assumptions. They’re assuming that the top reps won’t meet with them, but haven’t actually asked. It also made me realize that these types of fears and assumptions aren’t specific to this narrow ask a top performer for their time example. They can also be a crippling belief when it comes to your prospecting efforts and who you’re reaching out to. What happens if you assume that c-level executives are too busy to meet with you, or have other priorities that are more important. Do you then not call them an actually ask?
Making assumptions like these will kill you, and the reality is that you never know until you ask, and even if one person turns you down that doesn’t mean that everyone will turn you down.
This is salespeople! Not everyone is going to tell you “Yes”. That doesn’t mean you stop asking. The only way to really know what’s going on with people is to talk to them and ask the question.
I am very very rarely turned down by top reps when I ask to have a conversation, and I know you’re thinking “Oh, but Scott, that’s because you’ve got this great podcast and this platform.” Sure, that’s true today. But I didn’t always have that. In every company I’ve ever worked for, I’ve made a point of spending time with the top sellers to learn from them. They’ve always been willing to help. I can’t think of a single internal example where one of those people said: “No Scott, I’m just too busy making money and crushing it to talk to some newbie like you.” NEVER happened. The very first person I ever interviewed on Sales Success Stories was the number 1 Global Account Manager at LinkedIn. We didn’t know each other. In fact, I’m pretty sure I reached out to him cold and the podcast didn’t even exist, and yet he still agreed to a two-hour interview.
The main point here is, you don’t really know until you ask and you should never be afraid to ask, because what’s the worst that can happen? They ignore you or tell you “No” right? No problem there. Just keep asking and being politely persistent and at the same time go ask somebody else.
Ok, clearly I’m pretty fired up about this. Thanks for letting me get up on my soapbox this week. Again for the link to the fantastic post that started it all from Alfie Marsh, just click over to DailySales.Tips/357 and join the listener list while you’re there so I can send you a video from the 2019 Sales Success Summit.
Thanks for listening and as always, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!