It's hard to say exactly when Rosen gave up. It could have been March or maybe it was April. The weeks blurred together. But it was clear that he was psychologically defeated. He knew that "no sales warrior would say retreat," but that's exactly what he did. He quietly put his client list in a file folder and stopped making calls for a while. He would just take the business that he already had and stop trying to build on it. He decided to take a little sabbatical from selling, calculating that with his three-person staff and just 20 remaining HR temp workers, he could maintain about $3 million in revenue. In other words, his business was back to where it was in the days before he hired his first salesperson.
Nearly a year after Rosen embarked on his failed experiment, the Rosen Group is still alive. In mid-November, he was on target to hit his year-end sales projection of $2.5 million to $3 million, the value of his 17 or so corporate contracts. With only four employees including himself and limited overhead in his smaller office space, he's steered his company back into the black.
During the past year, Rosen did consider enrolling himself in a new sales-training program, because, as he says, "running a $3-million company wasn't cutting it for me." But instead of seeking inspiration from the pages of Dale Carnegie, he went to what he calls "personal growth retreats" and conferences with names like "Business and Consciousness." "I went the opposite way," he explains. "I decided more sales knowledge was not what I needed."
Lately, instead of the direct sales pitch, he's been trying a different approach. He's doing more of what he enjoys best: speaking at HR conferences and networking at local business events. He still picks up the occasional new client through referral. And he keeps in touch with old customers. It's just more casual now. "To Scott's credit, he's extremely well networked among HR organizations here," says QVC's Antony. Rosen has also started three new companies in three different consulting and recruiting niches. "I need the start-up excitement," he says. His retreat from the front lines of sales has, in some ways, actually helped him move forward. "I still think I'm a good salesman," he says.
But he's not the superstar he once believed himself to be. He's more humble. Today he credits much of his company's fast success not to himself but to having "a good wind at our back." He's also stopped beating himself up over the sales he might have made this past year if only he'd worked harder or applied his sales lessons more vigorously. Selling in a recession was an education he'll not soon forget. "Those of us who thought we were brilliant rainmakers during the boom and pieces of crap during the downturn have now decided we're neither," he concludes.
One thing's for sure: Rosen won't be trying to play the role of sole rainmaker. And he and his old sales guru Waks have made a new peace: Waks is back in a revised role, helping Rosen think more strategically about sales rather than focusing so much on technique. Looking back on Rosen's disappointing results as his company's only salesperson, Waks argues that Rosen may have lost some of his hunger. "Scott's commitment to making sales calls is not quite the same as it was in the beginning," he notes.
That, of course, is precisely the criticism that Rosen used to make about his own salespeople. How does Rosen respond to such a charge? "In the early days I was much more aggressive about getting on the phone," he admits. "But you need some positive reinforcement, some positive results."
So was Rosen right to fire his dispirited sales force? While Waks now says that he "supported" Rosen's decision at the time, he is also adamant that good salespeople can always prevail -- and as a company owner you'd be foolish to let them go. "If you have a viable product, the economy is not the issue," Waks says. "Top salespeople figure out a way to be successful."
But Rosen has come to believe that you can't fight market forces and thus justifies his decisions. If he'd known then what he knows now, Rosen says, he'd have acted sooner to eliminate the fixed costs of maintaining a traditional sales force, costs that ran him about $800,000 in salaries and benefits in 2001. "I've finally concluded that the markets are very powerful," he says. "You can't sell through some markets. It doesn't matter how great your sales force is."
As he considers hiring new sales reps, Rosen wants to believe Waks's rosy words. But his own experience tells him that many salespeople and most entrepreneurs are not infallible sales machines. "Maybe some salespeople can turn water into wine in down times. But you have to be honest with yourself," he says.
"I'm a good salesperson, but not as good as I thought."
Susan Greco is a senior writer at Inc and the coauthor of Customer Chemistry.
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"Going for the No" and Other Sales Lessons
1. Focus on your customer's pain. You know all the reasons that customers should hire you, but they've got to express it in their own words. If there's no emotional or financial pain involved, you're not getting the sale. By the way, a recession doesn't necessarily count as pain.
2. Don't be afraid to go for the no. Rosen is big on establishing an "up-front contract" with prospects. It sounds fancy, but it's nothing more than summarizing why the prospective client has invited you in -- and giving the prospect an out. Rosen often puts it this way: "Are you OK telling me no?" Asking for rejection takes guts, but it puts you in control. Maybe is the last word that any salesperson wants to hear from a prospective client.
3. Always be closing. Even after you think you have a done deal or at least a verbal commitment, clients may change their minds the next day or the next week. The solution? Always "post-sell." If you've secured a written contract or at least shaken hands, call back to confirm when the deal starts and that you are indeed the exclusive vendor. Even before your first sales meeting, you should call to confirm the agenda instead of assuming that everything will go ahead as planned.
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