If You Have A Pile Of Hope In One Hand....

You know the old saying, "if I you have a pile of hope in one hand and a pile of **** in the other, what do you get when you put it together?  **** in both hands.

Every one of us, at some point in our first year in sales, found ourselves in our sales manager’s office explaining why this or that sale hadn’t closed.  And before we could even finish the sentence, “well I’m hoping he/she gets back to me….” the aforementioned sales manager snapped back: “Hope Is Not A Strategy” as they pointed to the inspirational poster behind their desk with the same words screened over a photo of some forlorn soul. 

Your sales manager was right.  But they didn’t go far enough.  Hope is not only not a strategy, it’s nearly the opposite of optimism.  Optimism is h is a frame of mind, hope is an emotion.  They look similar at the outset, but lead to entirely different outcomes in the salescycle.
pernicious to the sales cycle.

So what to do with hopeful salespeople as a sales leader?  The first to build an ability to identify them and quickly.   Here are a few of the conversational clues I’ve identified from hundreds of one on ones with media salespeople that have helped me ID The Hopeful versus The Optimistic.

Conversation Topic	Hopeful	Optimistic
The CNA	Constructs a series of questions designed to uncover the problem they’re looking for that, coincidentally, looks just like the solution they want to sell.	Conducts the CNA with a scripted set of questions designed to uncover the client’s point of pain.
After the presentation	Floats in as if on a cloud, telling you (and anybody in earshot) how much the client “loved the presentation”.  Vague timeline for a close.  Says things like “he needs to talk with his partner” or “he’s talking with the exec team at their next meeting about it”	Shares the specifics of the presentation that the client liked and was likely to buy as well as the ideas that missed the mark.  Has contracted date and next steps for the client.
Next steps in the sale	Talks vaguely about their next action to get the client to say yes.	Talks specifically about the commitment they obtained from the client to move the sales process to a yes or a no.
Response to pending hell	Leaves voicemails asking about “how its going”, and e-mails with the subject line “Checking In”.  Assumes no news is good and spends lots of time trying to construct a way to get the client to say yes.  Begs you to “call the client for me”.	Leaves voicemails asking, veritably begging the client to say no because they understand that no news means the client bought something else and if they don’t get to no they can’t re-landscape the situation and present a new solution.

These are just a few.  Grab this handy guide and add to it.  You'll thank yourself.