---
title: Sales Success Takes Preparation, Observation, Concentration & Automation
description: Want to sell more, faster, at higher margin, with less stress and more fun? Sales Success Takes Preparation, Observation, Concentration & Automation.
image: https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hubfs/Hire_The_Best_Speaker/It_Takes_More_Flyer.pdf
---
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Jun 13, 2025
# Sales Success Takes Preparation, Observation, Concentration & Automation
 [Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/author/wes-schaeffer)
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Our world is filled with mystery and miracles awe... and oblivion.
We get upset that we only get 25 TV stations when traveling through the sky at 600 mph at 40,000 feet with our shoes off sipping a cold beer while it's -40 degrees just 18 inches to our right.
Our stores are 224,000 square feet filled from floor to ceiling with enough food to feed a small city but we don't know where steaks come from (they're grown on trees, Silly!) or how bread is made (in the oven, duh!).
(We also don't know how our nation was founded as shown in the video below.)
In life, 50% of the businesses and sales managers and salespeople and basketball players and doctors and lawyers and FedEx drivers and circus clowns you meet are below average. (I'm not being mean, it's just a mathematical fact. If there is more than one person working towards the same goal, there will be a #1 and there will be "everyone else.")
When it comes to making a sale happen, the average salesperson cannot tell you what it takes—in detail—to generate a lead, nurture that lead into a hot prospect, confidently and proactively address their fears, concerns & objections to make the sale, deliver what was sold in a superior, noteworthy manner, then nurture that happy client into a raving fan that is telling the world about you.
Some will say
- "Marketing isn't my job," or
- "I've been in this industry since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. I just know what to do instinctively," or
- "CRMs and email marketing don't work. I've kept paper and ink files since before the Berlin Wall came down and I see no reason to change," or
- "I'm always prospecting and I know a good lead when I speak with them," or
- "I'm great when I get in front of a decision maker. I just need more opportunities," or
- "We have support people that install the stuff and support the client. I'm not here to hold their hands and service them. I'm the hunter!" or
- "Cold calling / email marketing / direct mail / trade shows / PPC / SEO (insert whatever else in here) is dead. You just have to hustle and turn over enough stones / kiss enough frogs / throw enough sh\*t against the wall and something is going to stick."
Too many people think that
- selling is an art and not science.
- what it takes to be great at sales is subjective vs. objective.
- salespeople are born, not made.
They are the "below average" salespeople. (Don't shoot the messenger. I really am here to help. Great salespeople are not afraid of a little controversy and ruffling some feathers if it helps get to the truth. And that's really all we're after. Sure, we hope the truth leads to a sale, but it's better to have a prospect tell you "no" early in the conversation than weeks or months down the road.)
Successful selling is as formulaic and process-driven (and even automated) as making products like chains in a factory, as you can see below.
Great salespeople are like great football players: violent on the field; Mr. Nice Guy off the field.
What I mean by that is you create "Win-Win" scenarios for your clients. That's the Mr. Nice Guy.
But you do everything you can to keep your competition from doing the same. That's the "violent."
Let's face it, if you are just 1% better than your competition, you get 100% of the money. If you do that enough to your competition, they will be out of a job, which is not physically violent, but it's emotionally crushing to be sent home packing and it feels like you've been attacked.
While there are plenty of people that will say "it's a big market with plenty of business to be had by all," those people are saying that from an unremarkable cubicle, not from their private jet taking them to their private island for a two-week vacation with their family.
It's up to you to decide the path to take.
It all starts with putting the science into the art of selling. (For me that began when I started following this free [Sales Agenda](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/joy-stress) for every appointment.)
After being in commission sales since 1997 and owning The Sales Whisperer® since 2006, I can tell you that the 5% that have taken the time to eliminate all distractions so they can concentrate as they observe their competition, their prospects, and their best clients to prepare to win by codifying, systematizing, and automating their sales processes are the ones making all the money.
Shakespeare seemed to make some beautiful pieces—the Art—within the confines of the sonnet structure—the Science. You can do the same with your selling process but you first must look deep and think deeper.
There are precise, exact reasons you can and do win and lose sales. So do the things that win sales and avoid the things that lose sales.
This is the beginning of not only your sales automation but your life. Because as soon as you stop working in your business and start working on your business, you can raise your prices, work only with people you like, get home in time for dinner and relax.
## Where to start automating
Start with follow-up. It's the step every salesperson knows matters and almost nobody does consistently: calling back fast, chasing the quote, checking in with the customer who bought two years ago. It's also the easiest to automate, and today AI can draft most of it with a human approving what goes out. Here's [how to build a follow-up sequence](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/infusionsoft-follow-up-sequences-with-the-campaign-builder).
Sales, marketing, automation, success all go hand in hand. The sooner you learn to implement and synchronize them all, the sooner you'll meet and surpass your business goals.
Fix Your Follow-Up Failure
Own a business and don't have time to build it yourself? I'll build your follow-up with you: speed-to-lead, nurture, quote chase and past-customer reactivation. Running in 30 days, or your money back.
[See how it works →](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/follow-up)
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
[](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hs/cta/wi/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLKyVnIWa7qHmTReuooAtPGAhqp6w8IMxGNyXMv9ftOe7vgH05up2WETHPt1EkJw85zE0%2BFnAV635yEGWNmCTtOrnSNR2tXJIj6sw3ZdOa5TruOLFAmcKYBP9zc8trnv%2FvOQFqhQb94Czf6CGRm173leHBDQl48Risqj%2BS%2Blj02zx4AsysLwhGmFi4QFOMIm6wrOc50mezvLr6tIFBE0gdVy&webInteractiveContentId=184500196010&portalId=443614)
[custom AI solution development](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/custom-ai-solution-development), [Sales Training](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/sales-training), [ROI of AI](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/roi-of-ai)
## Related posts
[](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/stop-just-checking-in-because-it-makes-you-a-beggar)
[custom AI solution development](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/custom-ai-solution-development), [Sales Training](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/sales-training), [ROI of AI](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/roi-of-ai)
## [Stop 'Just checking in' because it makes you a beggar](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/stop-just-checking-in-because-it-makes-you-a-beggar)
 [Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/author/wes-schaeffer)
Jun 13, 2025
Years ago I came up with the tagline "Life's too short for follow-up calls," and it has always been...
[Read more](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/stop-just-checking-in-because-it-makes-you-a-beggar)
[](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/whats-acceptable-soon-becomes-inevitable)
[custom AI solution development](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/custom-ai-solution-development), [Sales Training](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/sales-training), [ROI of AI](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/roi-of-ai)
## [What's Acceptable Soon Becomes Inevitable](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/whats-acceptable-soon-becomes-inevitable)
 [Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/author/wes-schaeffer)
Jun 13, 2025
What's Acceptable Soon Become Inevitable We live in dangerous, trying, demanding, chaotic, anxious...
[Read more](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/whats-acceptable-soon-becomes-inevitable)
[](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/are-a-billion-facebook-friends-good)
[custom AI solution development](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/custom-ai-solution-development), [Sales Training](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/sales-training), [ROI of AI](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/roi-of-ai)
## [Are A Billion Facebook Friends Good?](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/are-a-billion-facebook-friends-good)
 [Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/author/wes-schaeffer)
Jun 13, 2025
On August 27, 2015, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook had a billion people use Facebook in a single day...
[Read more](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/are-a-billion-facebook-friends-good)
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