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Often we ponder in our heavily undisclosed mind bunkers about things we can never control. Sales is no exception. People are fickle minded, and in a generation of impatient intorelence learn to live handling objections. There are always few sales streaks that make us bold and mostly the ones that break us into despair and drive us to a point of self-pity, but we get along in the flow eventually. When you stop searching, you will find what you need.

Considering how tough sales works, you often see people armed with a bot-like script, often like a man with a hammer to whom everything looks like a nail. Every hustler see opportunities on-the-fly and chase them relentlessly till a point of no return. Your sales engine always would want a pitstop once a while. PAUSE! Stop doing high-margin, quick-yield tasks. As a sales leader, work smartly and don't over-commit to work. Often with long travel and sales calls, people end up compromising the big aspects in life. Work-life balance does matter a lot. Inside yourselves focus what matters the most, and make a better life for you and those whom you care. Draw inspiration from your life's lessons.

Be Lazy – PIVOT

You read it right. Be a lazy bum. Don't over think and try to perfect things too much. If your existing leads don't convert, hit a pause, and move on with your next set of leads, or start scouting for more inquiries. Sales doesn't magically convert over-night. Here's few great picks from Clayton Christensen's story that details why quality is not #1 priority, and why you often have to "pivot" your sales strategy. People are focussed on what matters them the most. Numbers for a finance guy, and converts for those into sales. The hard part for sales leaders today is to identify who's your rebar (competition/threat), and what's making your ingots not saleable.

Most intellectually satisfying sales tasks are working on mostly scouting new opportunities. Few companies spend millions into getting fresh leads. Most common sales methods – A sales developer scouts for inquiries from event booths, stalls, and spend thousands into digital advertising and marketing to find one good lead! Threading the thin line, when you call up post-qualification stage, all they might say is a big NO! As a sales guy, you can't shout at your ToFU prospect on why you decided to back out at the last minute. Obviously you can't drag any inquiers to court over the question why they expressed an interest in the first place and asked you to keep coming back every week! Accept the fact we live in an era of impatience!

Honestly a sales man grows stonger with every rejection. But, why can't I get good leads? You generate sales by making something people want. Show your minimal product/service demo to 100 users. Give free trails. Make people love your work. Let them do the talking. The chances are obvious and even if 1% converts, that's clearly an organic sale! As always remember – Quality is not #1 priority.

What is easy, doesn't last long.

Most of the days those in sales struggle to find the golden ticket. The inside sales keep barking at the wrong trees, call and email to dead leads. "I need the glengarry leads" says one rep as I walk-in. The manager shouts back – "No new leads this week!", .. "but these are dead-beets". Doesn't this sound very obvious? How do you expect sales to grow? Again, rethink what we just discussed about rebars. Apply re-bar concept to your practical sales strategy. It's always wise to stop overdoing what never converts and move back to square one.

In the big picture, sales is just a function of your larger enterprise. When you take into account of finance, factors like company profitability kicks in. Anyone running the firm only worries about spending more!

Imagine you are spending $50 to acquire a client for a ProductX vs $15 for ProductY, both retailing at different margins. In the long run eventually your profits are judged by product-wise clientile. But, what's stopping you from figuring a decisive sales strategy as to why spending that extra $35? The options are many -- For starters, you could have given a free-trial of ProductX to all who bought ProductY, and increasing the probability of trail-conversion. When in war, the strategies are many. The best stratgies that make you stand apart from your competitors always wins. It's never bad to be unique. The world's a big zoo!

Even if your grumpy sales task is to sell a $3/mo subscription package, what determines your sucesss is how best you sell that inventory. Obviously you won't earn much, but when you sense a demand, you can pivot on-strategy. We discussed more about growth loops for sales a while ago, and hope the post helps you churn your low-quality revenue towards profitability! To quote a famous line from Kungfu Panda, "there was never any secret sauce". Honestly, there's nothing today that's even a best kept secret. Keep faith in yourselves.