The big win is just a pile of small ones. This episode looks at why the reps who last longest in sales stop chasing the dramatic close and start counting the small wins that actually build a career: the returned call, the yes to a meeting, the momentum nobody sees on a leaderboard.
Takeaways:
The accumulation of small victories significantly contributes to achieving large sales milestones.
Sales professionals should recalibrate their understanding of success beyond merely closing deals.
Recognizing daily wins, such as securing meetings or receiving responses, fosters sustained motivation.
Competing against one's previous performance is essential for continuous improvement and momentum.
A focus solely on closed deals can induce a perception of ongoing failure in one's career.
Acknowledging smaller achievements ensures a positive outlook and maintains progress in sales endeavors.
Today's piece Small wins Add up to big deals the big win is just a pile of small ones.
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Sales culture loves the dramatic close, the whale, or the career defining deal as examples.
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However, the reps who last longest aren't chasing the big moment.
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They're quietly stacking small ones every single day.
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A yes to a meeting is a win.
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A returned call from someone who ignored the last three is a win.
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A conversation that ends with a clear next step instead of a vague maybe is a win.
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Getting a surgeon to spend five minutes at a conference booth after six months of no access is a win.
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None of these show up on a leaderboard.
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All of them move the deal forward.
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The problem with orienting your entire sales mindset around the big close is what happens in the space between them.
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If the only thing that registers as a win is a signed contract, you spend most of your career feeling like you're losing.
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The pipeline is full of deals that haven't closed yet.
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The days are full of conversations that didn't end in a yes.
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If that's your measuring stick, the job keeps gets heavy fast.
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The reps who sustain high performance over long careers have almost universally recalibrated what counts.
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They've built a definition of winning that has enough small opportunities inside a single day to keep momentum alive, even when the big stuff is moving slowly.
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A cold prospect agreed to a discovery call.
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A dormant account responded to an email.
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A referral came in from a client who was never asked for one.
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Each of these is data that the approach is working.
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Each one is worth acknowledging before moving to the next.
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This isn't about lowering the bar.
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It's about understanding where progress actually lives.
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In a long sales cycle, the close is the last event in a sequence of smaller events, each of which had to go right first.
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The rep who can see and feel the momentum in those earlier events stays engaged, stay stays motivated, and stays in the game long enough for the big ones to arrive.
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The rep who only counts the close spends a lot of time feeling like nothing is working, even when everything is.
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A yes to a meeting is a win.
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You have a lot of opportunities to win every single day.
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The question is whether you're counting them.
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Competing against yourself is part of this too.
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Did you have more meaningful conversations this week than last?
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Did you follow up faster?
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Did you get into a room you couldn't get into last quarter?
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These are wins.
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They don't require a competitor to beat or a quota to hit.
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They just require honest attention to whether you're moving forward.
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Stack enough of them and the big wins take care of themselves three Things we're thinking about what counts as a win in your day right now.
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If the honest answer is only a closed deal, you've built a definition of success that will leave most of your days feeling like failure.
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What are the five smaller things that, if they happen consistently, would reliably lead to more closed deals?
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Those are your real daily wins.
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Name them, track them.
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Let them count.
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Where in your pipeline is momentum building that you haven't acknowledged?
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A deal that hasn't closed isn't necessarily a deal that isn't moving.
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A prospect who went from cold to warm?
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A conversation that surfaced A real pain point?
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A gatekeeper who finally put you through?
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These are forward motion.
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They don't feel like winning.
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If you're not looking for them, start looking.
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Are you competing against others or against your own last performance?
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The leaderboard is real and it matters, but it's a lagging indicator.
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It shows you where you ended up, not what moved you there.
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The more immediate and actionable competition is with your own previous best did you do more today than yesterday?
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Did you get into a harder room than last month?
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That competition is one you can run every day, regardless of where the quota stands.
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The big deals are memorable.
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The small wins are what build the career.
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Start counting more of them and watch what happens to your energy, your pipeline, and eventually your numbers.
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That's Road Notes from the Traveling Sales Lady.
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If you relate to this one, the full conversation that inspired it is waiting for you on the Traveling Saleslady podcast.
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Find it wherever you listen.
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See you on the road and Journey on Road Notes is a production of the Traveling Sales lady in partnership with Brilliant Beam Media.
