Lets face it.
Everything you want to do has already been done before.
It might not be on the front page of the New York Time or plastered all over billboards up and down the interstate.
But it exists.
It’s there.
- Before there was Facebook there was Myspace.
- Before the Corvette came the Model T.
- Before the social media etiquette discussion there was Dale Carnegie teaching us how to win friends.
The idea already existed.
New times. New place. New language. Same idea.
The key then to sales success is not creation but evolution — repurposement over reinvention.
It’s about adapting new sales tools to timeless practical sales truths.
Let’s think about the sales process.
Quite simply, the selling process will always be some basic amalgamation of three processes:
- Qualifying prospective buyers effectively,
- Demonstrating a solution to the buyer’s pain, and
- Acquiring buyer compensation for your remedy.
This prospecting —-> problem-solving —-> payment continuum will never change.
It can be expanded and detailed, but these sales milestones are elemental to success.
Just like fire, fuel, and air are elemental to the running of a gasoline engine. If something isn’t working, you start by troubleshooting each one of these core concepts.
In business it can be easy to think that what you are doing is so amazing that there’s no comparison. That you’re “leaving a trail”.
But that might not be the best bargaining chip in trying to navigate toward success.
Here’s a few reasons why:
- Unknown risks add mistrust in your buyer’s mind to your competitive advantage.
- Referencable past successes ease the buyers confusion around post-transaction “next steps”.
- Different is good for marketing and PR, but means “chaos” when buyers plan implementation.
And are other reasons, but these illustrate the point best.
Because the idea already exists, you get to leverage all the positive qualities of an idea and carefully explain how your solution avoids the pitfalls around perceived historical problems.
And this doesn’t just apply to ideas.
It’s a key part of your emotional stability.
Sometimes you begin to think that you are the only one going through the painful process that you are experiencing. You start thinking that your fear and frustration is bigger and bolder than what anyone else around you is experiencing – that no one understands.
Whether the people around you really do understand or not, just remember that you’re not alone.
That pain you feel is called progress.
