“Never, never, never give up” is a famous quote attributed to Winston Churchill. According to Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, the speech was delivered on October 29, 1941 to his old school. The full quote goes something like this: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy .”
The quote made by Churchill was referring retrospectively to the first 10 months of World War II. Specifically he is referencing the fact that Britain stood alone and appeared to stand no chance in the fight. The fact that Britain never gave up and stood alone, and this paid off, is the lesson he is communicating.
So, what’s the learning for Sales people today? There is an often quoted study performed by Dartnell and McGraw Hill who found:
* 48% of all Salespeople give up after the 1st contact
* 25% give up after the 2nd contact
* 17% give up after the 3rd and 4th contact
If you add up 17+25+48, you can come to the conclusion that 90% of Salespeople give up before the fifth contact with an opportunity. Some of you may be thinking that it does not take 5 contacts to make a sale, it can be done in less. But what they also found in the same study was that 80% of all sales are made after 5 or more contacts.
You could be thinking that all this depends on a number of factors such as deal size, where the customer is in their purchasing process etc.
Furthermore, there is a huge difference between intelligent prospecting and simply contacting people repeatedly, who do not wish to be contacted.
However, it seems intuitive to believe that a lot of Sales people run the risk of giving up a lot of the time.
Salestrong run Sales Academies that directly focus on creating the right mindset within delegates to know when to give up and when to pursue business development opportunities “intelligently”.
Delegates are introduced to the first element in our core philosophy which is learning how to ‘Create’ value. This value creation mindset then forms the stepping stone to understanding how to ‘Communicate’ that value back to a prospective or existing client for the purpose of value ‘Capture’ for both parties.
To gain a better understanding from some people who have been through an Academy with Salestrong, click HERE to read a Case Study.
