My Go-To for Course Correcting a Sales Slump

I’ve found the last 18 months to be an especially challenging sales environment. Thankfully I’ve seen progress lately, largely as a result of my re-commitment to grind. The grind is part work ethic, part mindset and fundamental to my selling process.

To me, grinding is a mindset of breaking through the summer doldrums; the lack of call backs and email responses, by finding a way to have quality conversations with prospects. It’s pushing when I’d rather not. It’s doing things that aren’t always comfortable. It’s making calls on Friday afternoons; dropping-in on prospects, scheduling lunches and cleaning up my pipeline by re-qualifying all opportunities. It’s aggressively making sure no stone goes unturned. It’s having directed conversations that challenge clients on their conventions. Why waste time? Clients respect being challenged on status quo.

The willingness to grind isn’t a new phenomenon to me but, admittedly, I’ll drift away from it when business is strong because I’m focused on closing business that’s right in front of me. However, as business conditions slow, I have to remember to grind. As I reflect upon the last 10 years, the willingness to grind has enabled me to activate new customer relationships at a healthy rate; it’s been a force multiplier to my income.

I look at grinding as fundamental. What about you? What is your fundamental go-to when business conditions are lacking, sales pipelines are dry and a course correction is needed? I look forward to your feedback and insights!