Did you ever notice how, for years, sales training has been closely matched to a rodeo event? Sales reps are taught to chase after and rope prospects like mindless steer before they get away. We call that cold calling. When the rope is secure around their neck, we move into a trained sales pitch. If they fight to get loose, we break out another rope and tie their feet. We call that handling objections. The process of both roping steer and selling assumes that your target doesn’t want to interact with you and getting trained in clever verbal ropes will bring them to their knees.

Prospects are not mindless steer. Thanks to the Internet, they are more knowledgeable than ever and are more guarded from anyone who is a self-serving roper. Knowledgeable prospects are 60 to 75 percent through the order cycle before they even interact with a sales person.

So why to we continue this annoying random cold calling, roping selling technique to close business? Prospects today don’t want to be roped or sold; however they do want to buy. Selling in the Now takes into account today’s buyers, how they want to buy and from whom.

Using social media as a cold calling replacement is a Selling in the Now technique that is more aligned with the world today. Another is focusing on prospects that are already predisposed to buy from you. This results in a more valuable customer and doesn’t waste selling time on trying to close someone who will never buy from you. So leave your rodeo sales training home and tune in to your prospects and how they buy today.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com