* Persistence vs. Stupidity *

What is the difference between Persistence and Stupidity?

In the broad sense - Persistence is a sign of strength, courage and stamina...

Often this is true.

And - Stupidity is being too much persistent..

Persistence has personally always been one of my strengths, and something that I put high value on.

Early in my sales career, I thought that with persistence and determination, I could easily outsell my competition.

I decided that I will be more persistent than everyone else.

I figured the other guys were just weak and I could easily beat them because I was more determined.

Well turns out I was a bit stupid.

Stupid because sales people are a tough bunch. A LOT of us are determined. A LOT of us are persistent.

So when everyone is persisting and being determined in the deal, then that factor is no longer an advantage for you.

You got to get your competitive advantage from something else.

Persistence is important, but at the same time you need to pay attention to the feedback you are getting in a deal though, In fact you have to engineer getting constant feedback into the way you sell.

You have to always ask for commitments in return for the value you are giving out. I learned that it is very imperative in modern selling that one should always construct the persistence with appropriate objection handling techniques..

It gives me a bead on where I stand in the sale, and it exposes reasons that I can use as leverage to ask for something in return.

Another way of being persistent without sounding stupid is to ask questions back, when other people first ask you question, albeit its not a natural thing for most of us to do. In fact if you do it wrong, you can come across as really annoying.

The key to being effective here is not to always know what you are talking about, but to always be in control of the sales process. Questioning people back when they question you is one way to stay in control & persistent and to get high quality feedback while selling.

Worth mentioning is - Amidst the persistence and insistence yak, don't ever forget that :

'A sale is not something you pursue or you get when you argue ; it's what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.'

SID............