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Tallahassee, FL—In the first article of our series, we discussed the concepts of successful fishing and how it relates to the sales floor. To recap, three important things lead to success in fishing: the right location, the right equipment, and the right bait. If you are missing any one of these, you won’t catch many fish. The same is true for sales.

This installment will discuss the importance of finding the right location in greater detail. You can go out fishing with all the right equipment and bait, but you’ll be wasting your time if you go where there are no fish.

Have you ever been to an amazing seminar where the speaker opened your eyes to a new world of potential success? The insight was like a road map leading straight to success. Compare that to an experienced fisherman showing you the hot spot where fish are abundant and plentiful.

In the previous paragraph, there are two words that you should focus on: potential success. In order to reach the hot spot you must follow the map to success. Many people leave a seminar but take their newfound knowledge back to their old fishing spot—they don’t venture out to find the hot spot. So day after day they cast out their line with very little success because they are in the wrong location. They have the right equipment (new skills and knowledge), and the right bait (selling style), but no success because there are no fish. They may get a little nibble here or there and catch a fish occasionally, but it is hard, tedious work.

Many of you can relate because selling may sometimes seem this way to you. But anyone who has found a hot spot will tell you that fishing becomes a totally different experience when, just about every time you cast your line out, there is a fish striking your bait. Fishing just became a lot more fun!

For years we have all used the basic concepts of greeting, asking open-ended questions, overcoming objections and closing. I am suggesting taking it a step further and trying new avenues like serving while selling, creating a show-time experience for your customer and selling with passion and energy. Also understanding the modern day customer and how to better meet their needs. The new avenue to success is getting away from sales tactics and techniques and back to connecting with the customer and meeting their needs.

The winds of change are blowing and moving us back to focusing on our customers and away from sales tactics. I challenge you to examine your “location,” (i.e. techniques) to make sure you are on the right path to success.