I got in a tree stand for the first time in my life this fall. In Ohio, archery season started on September 29 this year. That allows for plenty of early season scouting and potential harvesting well before even the most eager buck starts to follow nature’s reproductive lure. It also allows for some very pleasant weather for those of us who decide to spend some time in assorted tree stands in hopes of catching the more active animals during this annual rite. 

As I said, this was my first time exploring this American past time. I have no objections to hunters, nor do I begrudge anyone who opposes the practice. To each his/her own. I’ve been on both sides of the fence on it, so I thought I’d give it a try to be as informed as I could be. Plus I figured I wouldn’t be skilled enough to take a shot anyway. 

I learned a lot about hunting. Like many things, (as in selling), there’s way more to it than most people would think. I’m an avid fisherman and every year I learn more and more about the things I didn’t even know I didn’t know. So this hunting stuff had me back at ground zero once again. I also learned a lot about myself. Hunting can be a quiet, deliberate, trying and lonely exercise. You might have deer all over your local landscape like we do, but they’re not all over it all the time. And when they are, the more “domesticated” suburban types aren’t nearly as jittery and mobile as their rural cousins. I can practically walk up and pet the deer who like to treat my hostas and fruit trees like their own personal cafeteria line. But out in the country, one whiff, one twig, or one abnormal sound will send these creatures scurrying for cover before you even know they’re there. And even if they are in sight, that doesn’t mean they’re in your sights. 

Plenty of hunting expeditions result in plenty of sightings and zero shots taken. If the shot’s not there, you just don’t take it. And that requires a lot of discipline and patience. And in today’s world, that can be a rare combination. It certainly can be for me. I spent 5 hours in the stand on my first day and I saw eight turkeys, one coyote, and two deer. The deer were deep in the woods about forty yards away and never came close to entering a “strike zone.” Still, after all that time of waiting and watching, the anticipation grows so much that any sighting of any animal musters up lots of adrenaline, and teaches you that your time will eventually come. 

It also teaches you how to sit quietly, pay attention, stay awake, and deal with the myriad of thoughts running through your mind. Your work, your family, your football team, (it was a Sunday), all come and go a lot more than the deer do. So sitting in that stand that day – and the multiple other days I went – provided me with a lot time to consider all of those important elements of my life. And as I have a tendency to do, I thought a lot about selling. 

Salespeople are like hunters or anglers. We’re trying to find the right place, (account), identify the best species, (customer), pick the right time, (prospecting), position ourselves and our lures correctly, (present our products and services), and bring them in, (close). We’re frequently tweaking our processes and making adjustments based on our experiences, the season, the “prey” and the landscape. And we should be. You can’t just wander into the woods and start shooting ammunition, and you can’t just walk into your prospect’s office and start shooting products and services. If there was a game warden for salespeople, we’d get our licenses revoked for irresponsible practices and we’d have to go through a re-certification process, (which we should all have to do anyway). 

So think about selling the way you might think about hunting or fishing. The similarities are everywhere. The more planning, strategizing, scouting and practicing we do, the more success we’ll have. And the great thing about selling: there are no limits. 

Why did she buy that? Really, why? Why that? Why from that person? Why from that company?

Whether your customer/prospect buys something from you, or from somebody else, there is a reason why. There might be a reason “why not,” but for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on the reasons why the person chose what she chose.

1. Lowest price.  Fine. That means that none of the prospective sellers did a good enough job to create any representative value such that even the second least expensive option was chosen. Ouch.
2. Only one in stock.  OK. (See above.)
3. Because that’s what they’ve always bought. Super…if it’s ours.
4. She believes the product itself is actually better. Might be. Might not be. But if she thinks/believes it is…done.
5. She believes the overall solution is better. That’s not just the product, it’s the total presented solution.
6. She likes the providing company better. Great. That’s not about product or price or availability.
7. She likes the salesperson better. Perhaps the most challenging incumbent to displace.

Any other reasons that weren’t listed? No. Any other reason we could come up with likely fits into one of those 7. So let’s take the approach that we didn’t get the deal in any of those scenarios. Can we get the next one?

1. Lowest price.  We can lower our price and get every order from now on. Until somebody goes lower.
2. Only one in stock.  Got it. I’ve been telling the boss we need to ramp up our stocking program.
3. Because that’s what they’ve always bought. This can be changed, but it’s going to take some work. You know, something like lowering our price and guaranteeing that it’s always in stock.
4. She believes the product itself is actually better. This will take some work too, but surely we can show some data to prove that our commoditized product is truly superior to the incumbent commoditized product.
5. She believes the overall solution is better. OK, we can improve our presentations and fact gathering so that the specific solution is more robust. (Try sprinkling in words like “robust.” That’ll impress ‘em.)
6. She likes the providing company better. We can supplant them. They can’t do anything we can’t do. Our products and services are almost identical. But there’s something they do or have done that’s special to her, or saved her some time, or she thought nobody else could do.
7. She likes the salesperson better. Perhaps the most challenging incumbent to displace. The incumbent sales professional may have created such great trust, credibility and rapport, that the customer just doesn’t believe anybody else could do it nearly as well. Does that exist? Absolutely. You’ve probably got a handful of those yourself. And in those places, you’re as locked in as is possible to be. But it’s rare. Most places fall in the #1 – #5 categories.

Think about it: think about why she bought what she bought, or from whom.

Another point of importance is that #1-#5 are specific to that particular transaction. #6 & #7 are about an overall, ongoing perception of an organization or person. Those are “relationship-based.” That’s why they are so challenging to displace. And they are also, very, very rare. Most of the deals we don’t get, are a result of less-than-convincing product/solution presentations combined with inadequate relationship status. Ouch. Yep. The truth hurts and the world of selling consists of a dynamic where, for many of us, more than half of our engagements are of that unsuccessful variety.  And that’s no fun. But having an open and honest awareness of how we are being perceived – and therefore received – is the critical first step of making incremental improvements.

The better job we do of putting ourselves and our company in the #6 & #7 positions with our customers, we’ll spend less time, energy and resources battling with everybody else scratching and clawing for the short-term, lo-profit #1 – #5 positions.