Selling and Planting Part 2

A Simple Sales Method to Help You Identify More Sales Opportunities

In last week’s sales lesson, we’ve introduced a simple sales model that can guide salespeople in how they sell. This sales model is modeled after plants and how plants grow. Although we are no farmers and we have little knowledge on agriculture (we studied urban farming though), we likened selling with farming. And true enough, the main concept of farming is very similar to that of selling.

Basically, to grow a plant, all we need is to put the seed unto the soil, water it, let it absorb sun light, and if necessary, put nutrients into it. Of course, it’s much more complicated than that but that is the basics of it. And if we do it right, it grows and produces fruits.

The wrong soil (for example sands) or the wrong climate will not grow the seed no matter how much care we put unto it. At the same time, if we put apple seeds, it will grow apple tree and not coffee plants. Moreso if we put too much or too little water, the plant will die.

Not only that but if we don’t put the proper nutrients, it will not grow as big or as productive as we want it to be.

In other words, all these ingredients have to be in line for the seed to become plants or trees and produce fruits.

Last week, we’ve talked about the seeds which represents our investment towards our prospects. Investment can be a lot of things- time, effort, advice, value, etc. This could also mean the amount of touchpoints we have on a prospect as we try to sell them our products. A defective seed will not result in a good fruit nor does a half-hearted investment in a prospect or little knowledge on the market and industry result in good production. Quality service (expertise + empathy) grows great fruit as much as quality seed grows quality fruits.

At the same time, we cannot expect a seed to grow on sand as much as we cannot expect any results from an unqualified prospect. No matter how much we persuade them or how good we are, if they are not our market, they won’t buy. Spending too much time and effort on them will just be in vain.

The soil represents the prospect. No matter how good our seeds are or how many seeds we have, if we do not have any soil to plant it, those seeds will be worthless. The same can be said with sales. No matter how good we are at our craft, if we have no prospect, then whatever we are good at will be worthless without any soil to plant it on.

You can have the seed and the soil but without water, climate, sunlight, nutrients; the plant will not grow.

. Here is the thing with water. Water, generally speaking, is good. Plants need the water. Just think of it this way: Plants are about 80-95% water. Water is like the blood of the plant.

So now, let’s talk about the water. The water represents our contact with our prospect once the seeds have been planted. We can describe the water as how we nurture our relationship with the prospect.

Plants make fruits through a process called photosynthesis and through this process, it uses water to make glucose which will evolve into the fruit itself.

In other words, water is crucial in the survival of the plants and in how it produces fruit. As crucial as water is to a plant, so is nurture to a prospect.

Nurture means taking good care of our relationship with the client or prospect. It means regularly checking on them and regularly giving them value or even helping them even if we don’t get anything in return.

And how do we do that? There are many ways but the best one is through giving gifts. Another is something as simple as greeting them on special occasions. There is also email marketing wherein we email our prospects regularly just to provide value.

No matter the action, the important thing here is we are able to regularly provide the prospect with value. Nurture is what makes a salesperson into an advisor.

A salesperson is just there to sell but an advisor, they are there to help their clients on their industry specific needs. And the only way we can become advisors to our clients is if we regularly show good will to them and provide value whenever we can.

Then there is sunlight. Just like water, exposure to sunlight is also very crucial in plants. It is the other key ingredient in photosynthesis or the process of how plants produce fruit. Exposure to sunlight gives the plant energy.

And what is the equivalent of sunlight to sales? Exposure. What we mean here is our exposure to our prospects.

Just think of it this way. If we stop contacting a prospect after a failed presentation, do you think after 6 months they will still remember us? Chances are no. A lot of things can happen in six months and at the same time the prospect will meet so many new people. And who are we that they will remember us? Exactly. If they ever still remember us, we are but just strangers yet again. I’d just like you to think about it this way. If a friend of yours in high school whom you have not yet contacted since high school suddenly made “Kamusta” to you, how would you feel? Exactly. So do prospects.

Wait, isn’t this just the same thing with water? Well, yes. But water is about the quality of the contact (i.e. the value given) while sunlight is the quantity of contact (how regularly we contact them). In short, water and sunlight goes together hand-in-hand.

And how do we expose ourselves to clients? Simple. By regularly giving them value like giving gifts, sending valuable emails regularly, and merely greeting them.

Here is the thing: as much as under-exposure to the sun will kill the plant, so is over-exposure. If pipilitin naten sarili naten sa kliyente, sira ang relasyon.

Lastly there is nutrients. I’ve studied some vermiculture which is the science of worm poops. Basically worms eat organic waste and they poop. But when they poop, you expect that the poop is dirty but no. The poop of the worm can be used as organic fertilizers. Not only are they cheap, worm poops are very rich in nutrients and can make plants so much more productive.

These kinds of organic fertilizers make the soil so much better in quality and it can produce more abundant fruits.

So what does these fertilizers represent? The selling part. In here, we give prospects more information or new information about whatever we are selling. Yes, nurturing the relationship is utmost important but we also need to sell them. Without selling, little fruit will be produced. This happens when we have new information to share with the client. It could come in the form of a new product, a new payment term, etc. We need to sell. After all, this is a business.

Too little fertilizer will limit the growth of the plants. Will it still grow with water and sun? Most definitely but it will be limited. So does too little selling limit our production.

But here is the thing about fertilizer: too much fertilizer will kill the plant and destroy the sale. Too much selling on our part will not only destroy the sale but also will destroy our relationship with the prospect.

There are so much more to this model than what we’ve just shared and our hope is one day we could create a full course on this. In the meantime, we will be summarizing and put everything together next week.

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