The world of “Sales” has many rules but only one law

Parts of our lives are considered a constant. You always have friends and family to support you, a job you always enjoy in a good location and a home you always like living in. Congratulations if the previous sentence applies wholly to you, but, for the most part, and for most of us, those things are far from static and are often changing.

Similarly, The Universe has many rules by which we all live but under certain conditions these rules can be bent or indeed, broken completely.

It is for this reason that the world around us has a much smaller number of Laws than rules. These Laws need to have a number of characteristics:

• They need to be Universal.
• The Law needs to be Absolute.
• It needs to be truly Stable.
• A Law must be Omnipotent!
• It must beSimple to describe.

Sales is a wide ranging term encompassing multiple roles, different activities, goals and objectives. This means that in Sales we have lots of advisory rules and frameworks. Grizzled, grey-haired sales people who have been through the mill often reel off these sayings or rhymes to describe perceived best practice:-
People buy from People. The only thing a sales person should not sell is their own integrity. "Listen" to the words your prospect isn’t saying. You’re born with two ears and one mouth and they should be used in that ratio.
This list of sales rules is extensive and grows every day as we all learn more about our ever changing markets. However, like the Universe, Sales has Laws. One Law in fact. A single simple statement that is applicable in all sales situations no matter the size, scale, vertical focus, complexity or difficulties involved.

"Time kills all deals".

I am certain people smarter than I could build the Simple equation that describes this Law but at its core it is, Universal, Absolute, Stable and I would argue Omnipotent! Sales frameworks and process are put in place to increase the likelihood that any given sales person can close more deals. These processes improve your forecast accuracy but given that the only law in sales refers to Time, the critical area to optimise across your sales process is the Speed with which you can impact and effect your prospects. The earlier you engage with a client in the sales process, the faster you can respond to a request the higher the likelihood of success. All the time and every time.