Is There Still a Place in This World for a Selling Fundamentalist?

I’m a pretty avid reader. Although I don’t have the patience for most books, I read articles like they are M & M’s. Professionally, my reading focus is generally limited to one topic only … selling. I live and breathe sales.

You might think that something as fundamental as selling would not be the subject of a veritable fire hose of topics touting the changes in sales, the advances in sales, and the shifts in salesperson responsibilities. We would both be wrong. It makes my tiny little brain ache.

Now, I’m all for evolving. Adapt or die. My business name is Adaptive Business Services. The problem I see, however, is that most of the articles that I read neglect to tell you that, in order to make any of this work, you still need to know how to sell!

I am both old and old school. I constantly practice and refine my selling fundamentals. I live by two numbers only. How much is in my pipeline in my Nimble CRM and what are my closing ratios? Of the two, the latter is the more important. It’s never “do more”. It’s always … “do better!”

If the average salesperson has to make 10 calls before they find a good prospect, I want to do the same in 5 calls or less. If most folks close 25% of the deals that they are involved in, I want to close 75%.

My management style also reflected my disdain for minutiae. I never asked for sales reports since I would probably never read them anyways. Deal reviews, pipelines and forecasts … these are important. If someone was not making their numbers, we would dig deeper to find out why.

Nothing in their pipeline? Prospecting issues. Maybe even working issues. A healthy pipeline and nothing is closing? Likely selling skills and, by that, I doubt that it is limited to closing. They are not doing the right things before the close.

Regardless of what acronym you use, or your company uses, to define your responsibilities … there will always be selling fundamentals. In my day, you did it all. I still do it all and, with some few exceptions in buyer behaviors due to technology advances, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you would like to learn more about Nimble CRM, or just chat a bit about selling … please schedule a free 30-minute Zoom consultation with me.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!