Never Never Never Give Up

Winston Churchill delivered this advice to a graduating class of students as a way of driving home how important persistence is to success in life.

Many successful sales managers know that one of the key attributes a successful sales person must have is the willingness to 'stick to it' and never give up.

So how does a sales persons 'stay the course' and keep motivated when a prospect isn't moving to the next step? I've found that one way to stay motivated is to modify in your mind the definition of 'forward movement'.

Recently I contacted a prospect who I had been trying to work with unsuccessfuly for 3 years. During the last phone call the prospect said 'don't ever call me again'. As I hung up the phone, I realized that even in this blatant and direct rejetion I had actually 'closed' the business...literally...and moved the prospect to the next step. Now the next step did not lead to a sale or revenue, but it did move to the sales proccess to the next level. The prospect is dead (for now) and I move on to other prospects thank you.

Alan Knight is a sales trainer and coach who has a seminar stressing the need to 'close every call'. What he means by this is that a person needs to make sure that every time you make contact with a prospect in person or on the phone...have a goal in mind and move the proccess forward.

Remember in the game of football...it's those inches that make up the yards that bring the first downs and without first downs, it's difficult to score touchdowns.

Never give up and make sure that every time you connect with someone...you move the ball forward...even an inch is getting closer to the goal.

Oh yeah...once in a while...a 'long bomb' doesn't hurt either...your might get a TOUCHDOWN!

Mitch Drew