Knowing vs. Doing in sales is all about implementation. Implementation connects the knowledge you have to the results that you’re going to get. And without that key element being implemented again and again and again, you’re never going to get to the results, the sales, the possibility that you have in your entire career.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing knowing versus doing in sales. Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Hey, David. I love this topic because I think so many of us are just doing what we think we should do, but we’re like, squeaky wheel gets the grease. And so, are we really focusing and fine tuning and honing our sales.
David: Right. And doing what we know.
Jay: Yeah.
David: Because a lot of us can get trapped in input, rather than output. And I know I am guilty of this myself because I am a chronic learner. I am always reading books and studying stuff, watching videos, learning from courses, I spend a whole lot of money educating myself every year.
What’s the newest, the latest, the greatest, the things that I should be paying attention to? And sometimes when we get too focused on input, we don’t engage in the output necessary to get the results we’re looking for.
Jay: Yeah, I’m exactly the same. Like I have all this technology. I’m always trying to hone my systems, but like we hear garbage in, garbage out, right?
I spend so much time on that, maybe I should be spending time on actually closing sales, meeting with clients, you know, those types of things.
David: Yeah, and keeping track of what we’re doing, keeping track of our output, I think is really important, and a lot of us lose sight of this. I’ve actually created tools in my training programs that allow people to start to capture that.
Because when you boil it down, the things that we need to be doing on an ongoing basis involve bringing new prospects through the door, getting them qualified in or out as quickly as possible. Engaging in presentations with the people who are worthy of presentations, making offers, closing sales, all those things are key.
And a lot of that is just about engaging in conversations with people. So simply by tracking what we’re actually doing on a day to day or week to week basis, we can have a crystal clear idea of where things are going wrong in our business.
But if we just sort of think in the back of our mind, “Oh, well, yeah, I know that, or I’m doing all that,” we can really be misleading ourselves more often than we think.
Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And when you talk about tracking, I’m looking for the perfect software to track or things like that. And often a notebook, you know, start simple and work your way up. A spreadsheet, something and just reviewing your daily activities can be a very powerful thing.
David: Yeah, whatever you’ll actually use is your best contact management system, whether that’s a full blown CRM software system, or whether you’re just good at being able to keep track of your appointments and notes on a calendar or in some sort of notebook. As long as you have it all in one place and you know what’s next, that’s huge.
Knowing what’s next for each prospect and client. When do I have to reach out to them and what am I going to be reaching out to them about?
If I know that somebody has an event coming up in November and I need to be in touch with them by early October, I want to make sure that I’ve got a note for early October that says, be in touch with this client, early October, about their event mid November.
So that when I reach out to them, I’m not just calling and saying, “I’m just calling to check in” or “how’s everything going?”
No, I’m calling, “Hey, listen, I wanted to give you a call. We were talking about this event you have coming up in mid November, wanted to see where we are with that,” so that we’re able to continue the conversation where the last one left off, which is also pretty critical.
Jay: Yeah, I absolutely love that. And I tell you about an experience we’ve just had, the past few weeks, because we upped our game in tracking and kind of identifying the different categories and the conversations.
We’ve identified two new products that our customers absolutely need. And we’re excited to offer that. And we would have never caught it, if we weren’t tracking the calls and taking notes and those types of things.
David: Yeah, it’s so important to be able to listen to clients, but a lot of that doesn’t happen when we’re not taking the daily or weekly actions necessary to make sure that that’s going forward.
Years ago, I put together what I referred to as a continuum of knowing versus doing. And in the lower left corner of the grid, people who know nothing and do nothing.
It’s like, I don’t know what I’m doing. As a result, I take no action. And people who know nothing and do nothing in sales are actually not doing any harm. So they’re obeying the first law of good doctoring, you know, first do no harm. Right? So they’re not really an issue in the marketplace.
The people who know a lot and do a lot are the ones who typically get the best results.
So ideally we want to move from knowing nothing and doing nothing to knowing a lot and doing a lot. But what’s really interesting are the other extremes on the matrix because There are people who know a lot, but do nothing or do very little. They’re not taking action.
And when you’re in that situation where you’re like, “Oh yeah, I know this, I know that. I’ve known that for a long time,” It’s like, okay, but are you doing it?
Not just are you doing it, but are you doing it as, as well as you need to be doing it? Are you doing it better than your competitors? Are you doing it as well as it can be done?
Because until you get to the point where you are implementing as well as you can, based on the things you know, there’s no way you can possibly get to the money. Because implementation tells us if what we know is actually true, right?
Because a lot of times we’re taking action based on what we know and we try things and they don’t work and we’re like, why didn’t that work? But you don’t even know it’s broken until you’re actually implementing.
And that’s why in our work with clients, we are laser focused on identifying what’s taking place, what is being done, and as importantly, or more importantly, it’s how it’s being done.
Because in a lot of cases, people are like, oh yeah, I knew that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this conversation with prospects and with clients where they’re like, okay, well, yeah, I know how to do that.
And I’m like, look, I know you do, right? Prospecting, presenting, and following up. Everybody does that in sales. It’s not about the what. It’s about the how.
How are we prospecting?
How are we identifying the targets we’re going after?
What specifically are we saying to them? Are we saying things consistently from one prospect to the next? Because if we’re not, then we don’t know what’s working and what’s not. So, the how part of it is absolutely critical.
Jay: Yeah, and I also think the assumption that you’re good enough, right? Our systems are good enough. That’s very dangerous.
I’ve been watching the Olympics and watching things where they’re separated from their competitors by one tenth of a second, right? And when they’re training, they’re not saying, well, I’ve reached this point and I’m done. They’re saying,
David: Good enough
Jay: Right. They’re watching videos about their technique. They’re training in a different way. They’re watching what their competitors are doing. So I think just the realization that you can always improve, always, is so important.
David: Yes, and implementation is key to that because implementation is what connects the knowledge you have to the results that you’re going to get.
And without that key element being implemented again and again and again, you’re never going to get to the results, the sales, the possibility that you have in your entire career.
Jay: Yeah. And I also think the understanding, cause this can feel really overwhelming for people. And I think it’s important to simplify, but I also think it’s important to know you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
There are people who study this type of stuff. You, who are always looking into this, always improving, always looking for systems implementation, and you’re passing this onto your customers. So don’t think you have to do it alone.
David: Yeah, exactly. And it’s not that I’m some particular genius, but when we’re working with our clients, we’re working with their specific situations, their specific issues. So when they run into something, it’s not a vague generality where we’re saying, “Oh, make more calls,” right?
We’re looking at what is the specific situation? What’s the bottleneck, and what are the best possible solutions to blowing through that bottleneck.
But that requires two way communication, right? It’s not about me saying, go make more calls, go do this, go do that. It’s about saying, okay, what are you doing? What are you currently implementing? How are you taking action on this thing?
Where are the bottlenecks that you’re running into? What are the specific situations that are keeping you from being able to get more people qualified in or qualified out? What’s slowing you down in terms of being able to make more presentations and making more offers so that people have something to say yes or no to.
And those basic points along the continuum are what’s really critical. So if you feel like, “Hey, I really know a lot, I should be making more.” It goes right back down to implementation.
Jay: Yeah, absolutely. So how can people find out more about implementation?
David: You can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with myself or my team.
We love having these conversations, because the first thing we’re going to do is take a look at where you are now in terms of visibility and sales and profit, and where you’d like to be, and then see about helping you to connect the dots between here and there.
That’s all just part of the diagnostic. That’s just part of the call. So you don’t have to buy anything for that to happen. We have these conversations to help you think through your current situation so that you can determine what are the best next steps? So if you go to TopSecrets.com/call. That’s the best place for you to go.
Jay: All right. Fantastic, David. Thank you so much.
David: Thank you, Jay.
Ready to Fully Monetize What You Know and Implement Like a Pro?
If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:
- Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
- Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
- Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
- Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
- Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.