“Sales goals that are oriented around results are not valid goals.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1619
How about you? Do you let go of the results?
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Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1614: Start With NO – An Early Yes – Stay Focused
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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 comes from Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales, and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. His coaching expertise is in sales, negotiations, and leadership. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:
Jim Camp: Hi, everyone. This is Jim Camp. Thanks for having me back for another sales tip. Last episode, we discussed managing expectations and eliminating assumptions. Sales negotiations are human performance events. Like any other competition, we have good days and we have bad. The fact is we cannot control our results. We cannot control the wins and losses. Whether you sell as an individual, you lead a sales team, or even if you’re in charge of an entire sales organization, the pressure of sales quotas can actually be impacting performance in a negative way. Although results in business are a necessity, I want to elaborate just a little bit, so bear with me.
Imagine, if you will, that you’re halfway through your quarter or month and you’ve already hit your sales quota. Chances are you’re going to be more relaxed, appear less needy, and probably overall you’re going to be a lot more effective in sales negotiations. Conversely, if you’re way behind on your quota, you might become desperate. There’s probably a little bit of fear, and you might be less capable of controlling your emotions.
Here’s the tip.
Results themselves, sales goals that are oriented around results are not valid goals. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but valid behavior and activity goals are the only thing that’s going to help your team get there. At the end of the day, you cannot control others’ decisions, and you cannot manage results. The only thing that you’re totally in control of is your activity, what you do, and how you do it, how you behave.
Imagine a baseball player, for example. The baseball player walks up to the plate, and of course, they want to get a hit, but they know in the back of their mind, in order to do so, they have to focus, stay relaxed, and they actually fall back on their training and all the practice that they’ve had, swinging and batting practice or in game-time situations, and they focus on swinging at the right pitch.
Now imagine that baseball player walking up to the plate with a manager in the dugout looking at him saying, You better get a hit. Is that going to affect their performance? Probably.
I know all of this is way easier said than done, but you’ve got to let go of the results. You’ve got to focus on your activity and behavior. Keep swinging the bat, but make sure you’re swinging at a good pitch. I’ll talk to you next time.
Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1619. Once you’ve clicked over there to grab that download, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!