Sales Myths – It’s a numbers game

Written by Ryan Tuckwood

If you’re new to the sales industry – or even if you’ve been around for a while – you’ll be hearing a lot of advice from others. While there are a lot of great trainers out there, and all of this advice is usually well-intentioned, there’s also a lot of poor trainers out there giving advice that they shouldn’t be giving to people.

I coach people every single day in business startup, entrepreneurship and sales in many different industries, many different products and services, so I come across a lot of examples of sales myths and poor, outdated advice. Now, unfortunately, outdated advice and tactics demoralizes sales staff in general, because you have to use what you’re being told by your boss or manager is telling you to do, but it makes you feel like you can’t do your job.  

It‘s 2021 – we’re not selling like it’s 1990 anymore. You cannot sell like it’s 1990 anymore, the modern-day consumer is way too aware. So here’s one of the most common sales myths in the industry today that’s still being used as if it’s the most modern, relevant advice.

So what is the number one sales myth?

The number one myth is the idea that ‘you’ve got to get through the No’s to get to the Yes’s, it’s a numbers game.’ 

How ridiculous is that? 

Now, this is not about work ethic. Work ethic is a great thing – you’ve gotta dial, dial, dial. But as an example, in my first job in this industry, I ended up in a call center where we had to dial at least 300 times a day. The job was to ask people if they had anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 liquid capital in their back pocket. That was harsh, that was ruthless and it was very likely that they’re going to say no, they’re going to tell you to go away not very nicely, and it’s going to keep on happening. It’s a numbers game. The thing is, that person will be called again in about twelve weeks’ time once the data is washed – and they’re going to remember you and they’re going to already not want to do business with you. So it’s just wasting leads.

The trick, like most things, is quality over quantity. Instead of just barrelling through as many leads as you can to hope that your percentage of yes’ can increase, take the time to have a conversation with the person, and learn the best way to sell to them – as demonstrated by the SWISH method of swelling honestly and with integrity. 

You need to be able to solve their problem, and you can’t do that if you’re just racing to get on to the next phone call or meeting. This way you can represent your company in the best light and you can maximize the amount of leads that you’re getting. 

In fact, going for quality means that you’ll probably end up with the same amount of yes’ that you would have before – but these will be warmer, more qualified leads who are more inclined to spend money with you since you treated them like a person, not a number. 

Hopefully you’ve found value in this article and can use this as a jumping off point to pinpoint why some of the methods you’re using might not be working for you. To learn more about how we can assist you with your sales techniques so that you can take your sales efforts to the next level, read about our proven sales training, sales coaching, and sales courses.  No matter if you are located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast or anywhere in the world, we are able to assist in providing the most innovative ethical sales training.