In Sales, There Are No Rules (and you have to know them all)

By S. Anthony Iannarino
 

It is only normal to want to learn what is effective, practice it, and gain competence. Sales has rule sets, all of which have been explored, developed, and codified over many years. We all fall into the trap of believing that Method A is the most effective method . . . except when it isn't and it doesn't get us the outcome we wanted. Sometimes we are tempted to believe that we didn't execute the method correctly.

But true effectiveness often comes from breaking the rules. Sometimes you have to take risks, go another direction, and disregard the rule sets completely. The trick is to be able to recognize when something is not working, and then being creative enough to explore other possibilities that might lead to the outcome you were after in the first place.