Matt Mayfield's Blog on Business

Will the real salesperson please stand up….

I have managed different types of professionals, but I can attest that no group is harder to influence than Salesperson.  A typical interraction might be:

1. On Monday, “Joe, I need your forecast by Thursday End of Business”.  His response “Ok, I’ll do what I can” (Result: No report)
2. On Friday, “Joe, you promised that forecast yesterday”.  His response “sorry Matt, I’ll get it by the end of today”  (Result: No report)
3. On the next Monday 9am, “Joe, I have a board meeting at 2pm, I need that forecast by noon”.  His response “sorry Matt, I’ll get it right away” (Result: partial report by 12:45)

In fact, this chain of events is so predictable that I started to use this as an indication of future sales success.  Let’s look at each step in detail and I will try to explain this from the Salesperson’s perspective/nature and explain my insight.

Read more…