Today's post is Jackie Voutsinas's (our new marketing manager) second selection.  As the old saying goes, "If it were easy everyone would do it."  The fact is that sales is hard work.  As a marketer who has sold, Jackie gets the importance of completely aligning your marketing and sales effort.  

As Jackie says, "Sales is definitely hard work.  Marketing, done correctly, can provide a great deal of leverage to help make it easier." 

Sales Is Hard Work

Last week I wrote about how the counter-intuitive idea is often the right one. Yesterday I read one of my favorite bloggers share was of the best counter-intuitive sales thoughts:  The best sales leads are people who are already happy working with someone.

Anthony Iannarino, author of The Sales Blog, shared this thoughts:

1. You don't want leads who are easy to get in.
2. You don't want leads who aren't loyal.
3. The best leads always have a partner.
4. The best leads are hard to penetrate.

"The long game means nurturing and developing relationships with the most difficult leads you have been given over a long period of time. It requires that you continually call and continually find ways to create value. You have to pay for your dream client in advance of winning their business, and that means you have to be waiting in the wings—and they have to know it."

Look, selling is hard work.  It's why the best get paid so much to do it.  It's why CEOs everywhere long for a salesperson who can "get the job done."

Somewhere along the way, maybe in the late 90s and late 00's, when the fish were jumping out of the water and there was more than enough fake growth for everyone, salespeople started thinking that sales was supposed to be easy.  More often than ever I'm seeing salespeople turn away at the first sign of resistance,

Let's not forget, a salesperson's job is to sell.  Selling doesn't mean pushing or peddling.  It means constantly:

• creating value

• be relevant

• helping

If you want fast growth (and big commission checks) the long game is the only game in town.