I have only wanted to be two things in life... drummer for the Beach Boys and a digital marketer

Thank you.

Maybe 25 years ago, I spent about 4 years working with high end salespeople, in the field, for a day. They would work with me for a day, and then I would work with them for a day.

These were all Top 10% salespeople, and several were in the top 1%. Some were so great that I would work with them for a week or a month....without pay, just to absorb what they could teach me. And several worked with me for a week or more for the same reason.

And out of that experience I found out several things.

The top 10% (at the time it was anyone earning six figures or more) had a few things in common. Mostly they worked by referrals from their clients/customers...usually with a secondary source of leads as well.

The top 1%? Without fail they did their business by referral (only from buyers), and by selling more to their customer base.

It wasn't until much later that I analyzed what this really meant.

The "Who are you in front of" meant that these prospects were already conditioned to listen...and probably buy. It did NOT mean they were interested in what was being sold. It meant that they were able to hear the message (and be asked questions) without the major psychological barriers most prospects have to buying from a "salesperson".

The "How did you get in front of them" nearly always meant by referral, from an existing buyer. It could also be from orphaned buyers from other reps,(with the same company), or a list of buyers from a different but competitive company. But it mostly was by referral.

Decades ago, I would work with salespeople and managers that would say "A lead is a lead, is a lead". Like they all had equal value. In fact, I told my reps that very thing.

But I was wrong. Before you ever get in front of a prospect, most of them are almost certain to not buy, and some are almost certain to buy.

These "High probability buyers" can easily be found, and there are more than enough of them in any area to guarantee you never run out of prospects.

But these "High probability buyers" can also be created...and the way to do that is by seeing them as a referral from one of your current customers.

There is a lot more to it than that, but I figured out that "80% of your success in making the sale" after analyzing hundreds of sales calls with these other top sales people...and of course my own sales.

I studied what the prospects that bought had in common, and what the non-buyers had in common. Frankly it took me forever to put this all together. The process really sped up when I started studying marketing in addition to selling.

The marketing basics that most of us on this thread think of as self evident...are seen as genius insights to salespeople. They never study marketing. Just as almost no marketers are interested in selling, or even learning how.

I've made tons of mistakes in my life, but I think I've been very lucky with my decisions in advancing my selling knowledge.

Added later; I've also worked with terrible salespeople (although not by desire). When someone would buy, they would celebrate and tell me about how they closed that sale. But they almost never closed the sale. The people bought despite the salesperson, not because of them.

The number of salespeople out there with 20 years of experience...who couldn't close a door...are legion. I've bought from them, and it was always a major effort on my part to buy...despite what they said.