When times are good, bad habits can develop, like reaching only for low hanging fruit. When times are tough, these bad habits can undermine your business. Learn to work every lead, without exception: Pick the whole tree.

Some things are universal, like the tendency of sales people to prejudge leads, instead of working each one, systematically. They are looking for the low hanging fruit.

Whether leads are walk-ins, phone calls, emails, or the next connection your telesales person receives from your dialing system, expect them to systematically take each through a process, and never give up.

Don't confuse prejudging with qualifying. Proper qualifying is part of the sales process your sales people should be following religiously. Prejudging is bypassing this systematic process: "This lead is no good. I'll go on to the next one."

I like to tell the story of the car salesperson who took the systematic selling approach to heart. Every walk-in was a chance to make a sale. One day, someone walked in looking for directions to the parts department. A couple hours later, because this walk-in was not prejudged, they left the dealership in a new car. True story.

Never give up on any lead, until you have taken them through the process. Eager buyers often lose their enthusiasm. Reticent buyers could be two steps from making a transaction. Seemingly well-heeled buyers could in fact be dressing up, whereas well-to-do buyers could be dressing down.

Tell true stories to your sales people to inspire them. How a seemingly innocuous email lead was systematically worked by an agent, and it turned into a big, profitable transaction. Tell the details. Make them feel every lead is an opportunity.

When this market rebounds, and the low hanging fruit starts to grow in abundance, don't devolve and grab only for easy sales. Instead, get more salespeople, make them stick to your system, and pick the whole tree.

Published: September 24, 2008

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