I CHASE THE BRIGHT ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY OF LOVE – Bob Lind

In 1966 Bob Lind wrote the words and lyrics to the song, Elusive Butterfly. (I feel so old; I was a freshman in high school) One of the lines in the song is, “I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love”. You know right away that Bob Lind wasn’t a sales person. If he had been the line would be, “I chase the bright elusive sale!”

Chasing a sale, how many of us have done that? Let’s break it down.

When do we find ourselves chasing a sale? I will bet that everyone reading this is saying they chase sales when they have no sales for the day. We start to chase the elusive sale on the days when “our plan” doesn’t work. I know that usually I would start to chase a sale very late in the morning. On the days when I went to all my planned morning stops and had no sales. Around 11AM or so, I would start thinking to myself, Bill told me he would buy next time I came by, and Sam said he would need my product sometime next week, and Joe and Jean, and Sally.. The list was always a long one. Customers who told me they would buy the very next time.

As we drive all around town chasing the elusive sale, what happens? If your experiences are anything like mine, and I am sure they are, NO SALES ARE USUALLY MADE AT THESE CUSTOMERS EITHER! We drive miles out of our way and we end up with the same results as we had in our planned territory.

PLANNED territory. Why do we call it our plan? Come on that’s an easy question; it is called planned because that is where we PLANNED to go. If we were there a month ago, or a few days ago it was where we planned to go today. Why are we so fast to throw away our plan?

The funny part is (well it isn’t really funny, more sad than anything else) if we look at it logically it makes no sense at all. Let’s say we were at the customer 2 weeks ago. The customer didn’t buy, but says next time you stop by I will place an order. If that were true, we could go by the next day and get an order, or to make it more absurd, we could get in our car, drive down the block turn around and come right back and they should give us the order right? WAKE UP! As anyone who has been in the sales field knows, your chances of getting a sale just because the customer said they will buy next time you stop in are no better than if you made a normal sales call.

As a matter of fact, I have seen new reps with a lot of great potential, wash out of sales for one reason. The first time they chased the elusive sale, the customer actually bought. When this happens to a new rep, no matter how many times you tell them that is was nothing but chance they will not believe you. The next time they are falling behind, they will start the chase, this time it doesn’t work but they continue to chase the elusive sale because it worked the first time and that made an impression on the rep. They will keep chasing until they finally fail so badly that they loose confidence and sometimes wash out of the sales field completely.

This is always sad to see. As a trainer I could never tell you who was going to be the next super star, but when I found a rep with a lot of potential and that rep washed out because of a bad habit they formed early in their sales career, it always hurt.

So what is the antidote to chasing the elusive sale? STICK WITH YOUR PLAN! Don’t be driving all around the area trying to catch a sale. Anyone who knows me knows I am NOT a runner. However I know a few things about running. One of the first things that a runner has to develop is their stride. This is the pace and the length of their steps. If a runner breaks their stride it can cause them to stumble, fall and loose the race. The same thing goes for a sales rep in their territory. You develop a stride each day you are in the field, if you leave your planned territory you have broken your stride and may not get it back that day.

There are a lot of sayings about working a territory:

1)      Every NO gets you closer to a yes

2)      If you jump territory you put all the no’s you have gotten for the day back in front of you instead of behind you

3)      There are no bad territories, just some reps with bad habits in a territory

The list could go on but I think you get the point. I can remember back to my first outside sales job, my sales manager had a great saying that he used for multiple infractions, “STICK AND STAY UNTIL YOU GET YOUR PAY”. Jumping territories was one of his favorite times to use it, and I am glad he did because every time I did it, or even thought about doing it, I would hear his voice saying it to me.

So allow me to climb on your shoulder, and the next time you try and leave your territory to CHASE THE BRIGHT ELUSIVE SALE you can hear me in your ear saying, “STICK AND STAY UNTIL YOU GET YOUR PAY”.

Lorin