[E60] Q&A Week: How come I used to close deals and now I don’t?

Slumps happen.

If you used to close deals and you are now struggling to find results, and not sure what changed (hint…it’s probably not the leads!), then this question is for you: “I have been at my sales job for a while, and I used to close lots of sales but for some reason I haven’t been closing like I used. I think the company changed the leads. What should I do?”

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Episode 60 – Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 60 of the sales experience podcast.

I’m so glad you’re here. I know I’d say that a lot, but I truly mean it. If you’re listening to these episodes, any of these, whether this is the 60th episode that you’ve listened to, plus all the bonus ones or you’re brand new and this is the first episode.

I appreciate the fact that a, you’ve found the episodes, the podcast out of all the hundreds of thousands of sales related podcasts out there, and literally I was looking at it the other day and there was just so many.

So A, I’m glad that you found it. And then B, I’m just glad that you care about your sales profession, whether you’re brand new to sales, you’re thinking about getting into sales. Maybe you’ve been at sales for a long time, maybe you’re in sales and I sent this to you and I’m hoping that you listen to it.

Maybe you’re a sales manager, a sales leader, you own a company that has some sales department to it and you’re just looking for ways to improve that team. Whatever it is, I’m glad that you’re here because it means to me that you take the career, the sales profession seriously, and your goal is to create the best experience for yourself as well as other people.

I mentioned it in episode 58 if you didn’t listen to that, the first few minutes of the episode, I talk about why I do this episode. Why do this podcast, why am I focused on it and really how my focus is you, the sales person, because by extension, that will lead to a great sales experience for your customers. So make sure to check that out.

But for today, I want to answer another question before we get into next week’s episodes where I’m going to get back to a theme and start talking about mind set.

But for now, the question that I have, and I’ve seen this again a lot, and I’ve seen these cycles a lot and it kind of goes into the slump thing I was talking about a few episodes ago, but it’s really, it’s when, you know, this is the question I’ve been at my sales job for a while.

 I used to close lots of sales, but for some reason I haven’t closed them like I used to. And, I think the company has changed the leads or something’s different. What should I do? And the first step, the first thing, this is what I always ask every person who asks me this, where every time I observed this, and again, if you’ve listened to any of these episodes, then this isn’t going to be a surprise.

 If this is your first time listening in the first episode you’ve downloaded, then this might feel a little audit, might be a shock.

But my first question to everybody is, is it you or is it the company and the leads, right? Because generally what happens is it’s the sales person. Now, the easiest test to see with this is if you’re on a team with lots of other sales people, so I’m assuming you’re not just working by yourself for yourself or in a team of like one or two people.

But if you’re on a team and other people on the team are closing deals and making sales at a pretty regular basis, then that means it’s not the leads that means you. Now, of course somebody could be lucky and every once in a while someone’s going to have a great day and be lucky, but if they’re consistently closing deals, consistently getting to where they should be, then that doesn’t, that means it’s you. That means it’s not the leads, it’s not the company.

Because if it’s the leads, and I’ve seen this before, like just being super transparent and honest, I seen it before where the company changes leads or the leads go bad or there’s a bad marketing campaign or there’s something wrong with the strategy where everybody is struggling to close deals. Maybe the top one or two people are being successful, but everyone else is struggling.

Then that might be something different. That might be a bigger holistic issue that’s affecting everybody, but if some people are closing deals and you’re not, that’s you. And again, most people don’t like to hear that ego kicks in. You don’t want to hear that.

It might be you that you might be the cause of it, where everyone thinks they’re the centres of their universe on less there’s an issue. Then they want to think that it’s everything outside of that, that universe.

But it’s still you. You’re still the centres of it. It’s still whatever you’re interacting, whatever you’re experiencing on a regular basis. If there’s consistent patterns and themes, it’s you. And so then how do we get back to it? And so the answer to this is if you use to close deals and now you’re not used to make sales, now you’re not, then there is something you did different.

Fundamentally, something had to have changed where you’re now doing something different than you used to. In my experience as a general rule in the place I start with most people is if you used to close sales, most likely you were using a script or following a process.

Then what happened is you thought you knew better. You thought you knew how to do it. You didn’t need the script, you didn’t need the process. You become a professional air quotes and a master air quotes.

And so you know what to do. The classic line I hear all the time is I know how to close sales, which means I don’t need your script. I’m just going to do what I do best and I’m going to close sales. And sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Some people are truly professionals where they can take a script, internalize it, close sales and be consistent time and time and time again and they can be effective over and over again. Other people when they try that, they completely fail. And so the key is to get back to what you were doing.

If you are closing deals three weeks ago, six months ago, whatever that timeframe is, go to your manager, go to your, whoever you have in your organization, trainer, coach, leader, whatever that looks like. Have them pull up either your calls or your interactions or whatever you have from that time period when you were successful.

So then break it down. Reverse engineer what worked, where you following a script, where do you asking certain questions? Where are you actually listening? Because the thing I see is that when reps feel like they’ve graduated to a higher level, they stop using the script, they stop asking questions and they stop listening to what the prospect has to say and that combination is just the killer of deals like that is really hard to close deals.

When you don’t do that, when you’re not following a script or the same process every time, when you’re not asking questions and you’re not actually listening, then your prospect’s not going to have the right experience and they’re not going to move forward at scale. You might get one or two deals every once in a while because there’s always people who will buy and enrol and sign up no matter what.

Even if you’re terrible, as long as you’re nice, but even if you’re terrible, they’ll still sign up. Like those kinds of people always exist, but if you’re not hitting consistent numbers, especially where you used to be, then go back to what worked. Typically it’s using a script, it’s asking questions, it’s listening, it’s getting help. It’s getting someone else on the phone call.

If you’re struggling, it’s going back to the basics. Now the ego is what kicks in and a lot of people think, I don’t need that help. I graduated. I’m much better. I know how to close deals. I don’t need help. Just step back.

If we look at sports, for example, there’s times, let’s say in baseball, a batter who can’t hit the ball and they get into a slump. They get into a point where literally they can’t seem to connect. They’re in a hitting slump and everything has changed.

They’re probably in their head, they’re probably chasing it. They’re probably over analysing it. They’re not doing what worked before, which is the fundamentals. Trusting the process and being consistent and doing it over and over again. And so it’s about getting back to those basics and just doing what worked when it worked. And so keep that in mind.

If you’re not closing deals, a, get some help, get some feedback, watch some game footage, recordings, whatever it might be. Have somebody go through it with you. You know, one of the things to keep in mind is if you’re not closing deals, you’re listening to recordings.

Take that recording and while you’re listening to it, and again, this is the caveat, everyone hates hearing themselves on a recording. Trust me, I know I hate it. Everyone hates it. Like it’s not a fun experience. We all sound funny when we hear ourselves talking, but deal with it.

Listen to the recording with this script and my in hand. If you have a script and then follow along and see how you’re doing, are you tracking with the script or not? Most likely you’re not. If not, get back to that script as soon as possible.

Follow that process. Ask your manager, your coach or leader, whoever it is to listen in on your calls live, help you stay on point, help you focus, get back on track and I can guarantee that if you want to be successful and you want to get back to your previous form of closing deals, then you will get there.

Now, if you don’t want to or you’ve kind of given up or whatnot or you have too much ego involved, then there’s no amount of using the script or coaching or trains going to matter because you might try to use it, but it’s going to be a half ass effort so you’ve really got to want to get back on it and to be successful.

If you do, if that is your goal, then you can get the help and I guarantee you will see results right away once you get back to what works because the company has given you a formula, no matter what they know what works. You’ve even proven it to yourself that it worked in the past. All you’ve got to do is just return to that, whatever it worked, whatever that might be, and that’s true in sale.

That’s true on life. If you’ve ever been really good shape in your life, you know maybe you eating right working out a certain way that works for you and your lifestyle, your body type, what you enjoy. Some people like running, some people like cycling, lifting weights, hiking, whatever that is. There was a formula. There was a time in your life where you are in good shape and it’s not about metabolism.

It’s about what you were doing in that combination. If you want to get back in good shape, just get back to that formula that worked. Sales, get back to the formula that works, whatever that might be. Hopefully, that helps. This ends another week of answering questions.

Going through these episodes. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this. Again, make sure to subscribe so you get every episode starting next week, we’re going to shift it up. Get back to what I was doing. It’s going to be fun and until next time.

Always remember that everything in life has sales and people will remember the experience you gave them.