Lose the Penny Thinking If You Want to Increase Sales
Do you think in pennies? Of course not you may respond! Yet, due to conditioning you may be thinking in pennies and losing sales opportunities.
I realized the impact of “Penny Thinking” as I passed two gas stations within a half mile of each other. The difference between these two business for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel was just 1 penny. And the one with the lower price had twice as many customers as the one with the higher price.
How many times of each of us engaged in a similar behavior? We shop to save a penny or even 4 pennies while ignoring the big picture that we are losing dollars. Here we are engaged in “Sea Level” behavior where we cannot see the forest for the trees instead of “See Level” behavior where we can see the entire picture because we are at the 30,000 foot viewpoint.
Have you ever considered the time wasted when you are engaged in Penny Thinking? By just doing the math, saving a penny per gallon over the course of the year yields $4.80 if you drive 12,000 miles annually with a vehicle that averages 25 miles per gallon. Depending upon the time you wasted in driving to that station saving that penny per gallon is a losing proposition because your hourly compensation rate is far more. Sales Coaching Tip: If you are having time management problems, then maybe the real problem is how your are thinking.
In sales, this same thinking exists. The Penny Thinking is making many contacts (warm to cold calling), investing a few pennies on lead each instead of the Dollar Thinking of investing additional time to build the relationship. With only 2% of all sales made on the first contact and 80% of all made between the 5th and 12th contacts demonstrates the value of Dollar Thinking.
Penny Thinking also suggests that the salesperson has no written action plan to increase sales. These folks are in the role of Captain Wing It, spraying and praying their actions all over the place hoping something will stick instead of being Captain Focus with a clearly articulated course of action.
If you wish to increase sales, then consider this question: Are you engaged in Penny Thinking (small picture) immediate gratification or Dollar Thinking (big picture) delayed gratification?
Are the sales behaviors of your team or even yourself where you want them to be? If not, then you may discover an easy read on how to increase sales in this book, Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success including looking at your sales approach.
Take this free sales skills Chicago Sales Coach Leanne Hoagland Smith helps with sales coaching, leadership to sales management development.
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