Sales Laundry

I was recently asked in short interview if I could close a sale.  After 20+ years of direct sales or sales management experience and building companies through sales, I responded with a confident “yes.”

“What proof do you have to show for it?” was the gist of the follow up question, to which I responded with my historic close ratios and my historic sales rankings.

After completing the conversation and looking back upon it, I think that was a miserable way to answer that question.  Thinking about it a little more, I came up with the right answer for me.

Can I close a sale?

My proof?

• I have friends.  Friends I met through a cold call and a willingness to listen, understand and offer a solution that made some aspect of their lives and businesses better that I can still call today even though our paths have long since moved in different directions.
• A large charitable organization serving families that would otherwise fall through the cracks has been able to save money and reallocate thousands of dollars from operating costs directly to their aid programs, increasing their reach and giving them the ability to help more people in their community.
• A government entity mandated to change their technology infrastructure without any budget dollars to so, successfully met that mandate without impacting their users scattered across the nation or disrupting the systems responsible for generating pay checks for some of our soldiers.
• A vice president client had such confidence in his ability to manage his organization from anywhere that he was able to go on humanitarian missions around the world building houses and improving lives where running water and electricity are considered luxuries.
• Several small businesses have been able to open and serve their community and begin to rebuild a warzone neighborhood with loans made to them by a new bank that manages risk and responds to customer needs through infrastructure and security programs I helped design and put in place.

What the “proof” question made me think about, and what I have never really stopped to consider before, is what happens downstream once our work is complete and the sales deal gets done.

Can you close a sale?  What proof do you have?  How would you answer that question?

Take a look downstream from your own sales efforts and look for your own proof.  If you feel like sharing with the rest of us, I would be glad to hear your story.

Image courtesy of Isrealli.org