There are a plethora of sales myths providing advice on how to fight sales reluctance, distractions, apathy and fear. Unfortunately most of this advice is worthless. These myths are nothing more than  half-baked claims  and false promises. They won’t help you find leads, set appointments, convert prospects  nor close deals.

These sales myths stubbornly get repeated over and over. So let’s put these rumors to rest and sleep soundly tonight knowing the truth.  

So it begs the question,  what really works in sales? What’s the secret ingredient?   

Let’s pull back the curtain and and unmask these four sales myths and create possibility. 

Myth #1- 10X Rule

One myth pervasive across the internet is the notion of exerting extreme effort. If you’re making 10 cold calls a day, make 100. If you’re sending out 50 automated emails, send 500. 10x it!

The 10X Rule is like looking for a lost watch, but you never find time. Extreme effort will not turn a bad idea into a successful business. Suppose your  company sells garlic infused vanilla ice cream. It’s somebody’s ideas of a hot new trend. Neither children nor discerning adults could stomach such a wretched combination. Pity the poor seller. They visiting distributor after distributor expending extreme effort with no luck. It’s a no win situation.

It takes hard work getting a new business off the ground. But working harder by itself is not enough. If a product brings little to no value to the market will never be successful.  Value matters. 

Extreme effort is best expended over short bursts of time rather than as a 24/7/365 lifestyle. Working 18-hour days is not sustainable over the long term. Your health will suffer, as will your mental focus. Success is like a marathon with periodic short-term sprints at key moments. It is physically impossible to sprint for the entire race.

Myth #2 – Work Smarter Not Harder

Opposite the 10X Rule is the myth of work smarter not harder. It dismisses the importance placed on hard work and values the quest for focuses on thinking “out of the box”. Instead it preaches to never be satisfied with the conventional ways of doing things and keep looking for that better mousetrap. Our brain consists of two parts, ‘left’ and ‘right’. In the left side, nothing is  right. In the right side, there’s nothing left. This search never ends.

Working smart may be essential, but it’s only half the equation. No successful entrepreneur or sales professional will tell you that intellect is  a substitute for applying maximum effort during every waking hour of the day. To reach the top of your field, you must take advantage of technology and work efficiently. But you must also be the first one in the office and the last one to turn off the lights. It takes grit to dig out success.

Smarter work affords us more time. But saved time doesn’t mean anything unless we put it to good use. Success doesn’t arrive by solely focusing to simply work smarter. The most successful people work smart, but they also work exceptionally hard.

With that said, hard work and smart work alone are not sufficient for business success. It takes ingenuity, vision, risk calculation, and luck.  Both hard work and smarts are essential. It’s time to stop treating them as if they were mutually exclusive.

Myth #3 – It’s a Numbers Game

One particularly persistent  lie is the myth that sales is a numbers game. It’s the  idea that you need to get 95 no’s for 5 yes’s. If you just make enough calls, eventually you’ll strike gold.

Wrong!

The “numbers game” myth is used by those who believe in luck and chance to close sales. It falsely believes if you flip a coin enough times you will get more heads. This myth lives in the realm of telemarketers, carnival barkers and digital marketers. But why would anyone want to deal with hundreds or even thousands of prospects who may not even want what you have to offer?

A teacher asked a student on day if they’re good at math. “Yes and No” answer the student. “What do you mean?”, responded the teacher. “Well….”, said the student. “Yes, I’m no good at math!”.

This is myth is bad math. Selling is not a numbers game,  it’s a value game.

The “numbers game” myth decreases your chance of success. It makes selling more complicated and harder than necessary. It actually prevents people from looking at what they can do to get better.

Great sales is about relationships and providing value. It’s  not numbers. Better to focus on the most valuable prospects. Then target your selling efforts on people who have an interest and can make a buying decision.  All prospects are not created equal.  It’s only when you focus on selling to great prospects, that you will see great numbers. A referral is worth 20 cold leads. There’s a numbers game for you. 

Myth #4 – ABC

In the 1992  film Glengarry Glen Ross, a sales whiz named  Blake (as played by Alec Baldwin) is sent by Mitch and Murray, the owners of Premier Properties. His mission is to motivate the sales team. Blake unleashes a torrent of verbal abuse on the salesmen. He announces that only the top two will get access to the more promising Glengarry leads. The remaining team members will be fired.

During his training Blake teaches a motivational phrase used to describe a sales strategy, ABC – Always Be Closing . The phrase serves as a reminder. Every action a salesperson takes should have the intention of moving the sale towards the close. Push push push.

This is the opposite of understanding the wants, needs and discovering if you can add value to their business. An egregious sin of many sellers is closing to quickly. Never assume you know best until you’ve fully discovered the pain and desires of your prospect

Wake Up to Tip the Scales in Your Favor

These myths are actually lies. Let’s wake up to the fact that:

1.  NOT everyone is your ideal client.

2. Prospects don’t care about you.

3. Prospects don’t think about you.

4. Prospects have a set of challenges that scare them half to death.

5. You may not  be solving their greatest challenge.

You can’t add value to all prospects lives.  Not only that,  in some cases, you  might actually make their lives worse if they became clients. They have have other challenges at their doorstep and adding yet another change, might be fatal. Dangerous myths create dangerous times. 

What DOES work is to focus on building a value proposition, discovering truly qualified clients, serving their needs and desires, and building relationships that generate ongoing sales and referrals.

We need to wake up! We need to call out these sales myths for the lies they are.  If we wake up to the truth and what’s  really going on during a sale,  we can tip the scales in our favor. Knowledge is power.

Discover more at my weekly podcast SalesBabble.com