Excuse Making – We All Do It.
The temptation is just too overwhelming. Some of us do it more than others. It is one habit that leads to destruction and failure in business and in life. We have become a nation of habitual excuse makers rationalizing poor performance and incompetence.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the sales arena. Sales organizations are full of non-producers and sales managers who blame the economy, their competition’s low ball tactics, their company’s management practices, the cost of their product or service, the marketing department, and…. YES they even BLAME THEIR CUSTOMERS for their poor performance.
The Blame Game
Admittedly customers have too tiny of minds, too short of attention spans, are overwhelmed and easily distracted to pay attention to anything that requires more than a nanosecond of serious thought. Certainly, customer’s tastes, preferences and demands have changed, and not necessarily for the better. And the population as a whole isn’t getting smarter, more studious, or more noble. But whatever customers you have chosen – they are what they are – and blaming them will prove to be nothing but a waste of time.
Sales reps, sales managers and business owners who blame their failure on their customer’s ignorance, short sightedness, cheapskate mentality, and stupidity have two choices: replace these customers or fix yourself! You are not going to fix them. Fixing yourself requires that you get your head out of your ass and realize that you need to acquire new, more powerful sales skills by participating in intense sales training or sales management training. Fail to do this and your future results will not improve.
If you or your team are under performing it is either because a) you are not selling what your customers want or b) your selling skills are impotent and you are simply not persuasive enough. It is not their fault they don’t buy from you. Either way professional sales training or sales management training will help if you are willing to invest in yourself and grow. Fail to do this and it’s simple – your results will stay the same – so don’t expect anything different.
As Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and it is I.” This self-admission is the starting point of all growth.