There Are No Magic Sales Beans!

I get frustrated sometimes.

More often than I’d like to admit.

I found myself explaining the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to a salesperson last week, a very young salesperson, who didn’t get my reference when I said, “There are no magic beans.”

It seems that Jack and the Beanstalk isn’t as popular with Gen Z as it was when I was growing up.

Here’s how that reference came about:

We were walking through the existing sales process to sharpen it to select better sales prospects, create more compelling messages, and more effective follow-up processes.

At multiple points, the small sales team members asked, “How do we ‘get business’ with LinkedIn” and, “Isn’t there a tool that will automate this?” and, “Can’t we just send the same message to everyone?”

What I was hearing frustrated me. It actually pissed me off and I finally looked at the team and said,

“Look, there are no magic beans!”

Ultimately, what I heard was, “Can’t you make this easier for us?”

And I thought of the Jim Rohn quote,

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

There are some tech platforms that can help you access information, deliver insights faster, and alert you to opportunities.

LinkedIn and Social Media can help you build relationships with prospects.

Some tools can help you customize messaging at scale.

But none of them actually sells for you.

Why else would your company need you?

If technology can harvest leads, convert them to opportunities, and close business, your company doesn’t need YOU, they need a robot or Artificial Intelligence (which, PS – is going to replace many transactional sales positions in the coming years).

In Jack in the Beanstalk, he traded his cow that had stopped providing milk for magic beans. There is a giant and a goose and a lot of other stuff in the story, but my point is,

There are no magic beans that can sell for you

There is no silver bullet that will earn customers or business.

You’ve got to want success more than you want comfort or ease.

Selling takes thoughtful, creative, intelligent, persistent, work that’s done with integrity and (hopefully) passion.

If you don’t have that to give, STOP looking for magic beans and start looking for another job or a different career.

PS. My one caveat—coffee beans. Those are pretty freaking magical beans! But even THEY can’t sell for you. They might keep you caffeinated but that’s their only superpower.