Salespeople, a lesson from a marketer

Seth Godin has such a GREAT post that all salespeople should read. It’s especially timely for our industry. As the mortgage industry gets pounded, as the great shakeout gets underway in earnest, great salespeople are going to earn more business than ever. Why? Because with the pretenders gone, those that are truly excellent at their craft will excel helping people from a perspective of trust and knowledge.

If you are just a good salesperson you are in trouble. How do you know if you are just good? Does this sound like you?

…lifers who showed up, did what they were told and closed a sale here and there.

It soon became clear that the salesperson who was assigned to me wasn’t ‘great’. The dealership had messed up: He had no record of my appointment, no file, no history of why I came. But he just punted. He made no effort to engage with me or look me in the eye or empathize with my frustration at the complete waste of time my call yesterday had been. He gave up after about ten seconds, bummed out that he had lost his place in line. So I left.

If that sounds like you – you are in trouble in our industry. There is no room for punting in our industry. In this time in our industry Seth’s comments ring even truer:

In this case, it’s obvious that a great salesperson is going to sell far, far more than a good one. … ten good salespeople still aren’t going to close the account that a great one could. That’s because it’s not a linear scale. The great ones reach out. They work the phones when they’re not first in line. They understand what a customer wants. They’re not just better than good. They’re playing a totally different game.

If you aren’t playing a different game, if you are doing the same thing as everyone else you are going to be stuck in ‘good’ and in our industry that puts you on the endangered species list. Instead, read Seth’s post, pick up a Jeff Fox book and start playing the winning game – and Seth has it right (as usual) its not just about being better than good.