Today’s Story: Bullshit Cliché Comes True and a Massive Overreach on a Sales Analogy

I used to write a bunch of bullshit clichés like how “the extra mile is a lonely road” and other trite platitudes like that.

But today was one of those times when the cliché proves true. I kept going when others had quit and gone on to chase other opportunities. And it’s going to make all the difference in how the final scoreboard looks this month.

Let me explain.

The type of sales I do is kind of a hybrid hunter/farmer role, representing several thousand accounts and revenue in the mid 7-figures. Given the massive spread, there’s simply no way to cover every single customer; so most sales reps set a threshold where they no longer chase potential deals under a certain dollar amount.

Today, I dropped below the hard deck into fertile fishing waters.

Sales lends itself well to all kinds of analogies. I’m not a big fisherman, but I love the patience that it teaches us. And fishing, like sales, is something where we can do everything right and still come up with jack-shit.

So it goes.

Feeling frustrated after grinding hard all morning without much to show for it, I was considering changing up my strategy for the last couple days of the month. But I stuck to one sales campaign I’d been working, kept working it, and near the very end of the day the “Yes” answers started rolling in. What had been a quiet day turned into an avalanche.

What made the difference was I finally went past the point where everyone else had quit going after sales.

There was a cornucopia of customers just waiting for help in finding the right solutions to their needs in exchange for their money. All I had to do was keep “fishing” for long enough.

I’m starting to think there’s something to pushing past where people think is sensible.