To make it in sales – fish for whales!

When I started my first sales job, over 20 years ago, my boss gave me a piece of sales and marketing advice that has helped me generate millions of pounds worth of sales – and I am going to share it with you right now!

“To make it in sales, fish for whales!”

I asked my former boss what his comment about fishing for whales actually meant.  He explained:

“Jim, if you go fishing and you catch 10 goldfish, you won’t even fill a cup – but if you catch 10 whales, you will fill half the beach!”

Sales leverage

With that simple explanation, he taught me how the amount of time and effort required to win a £50,000 sale, was not a great deal more than it took to win a sale of £5,000.  This simple idea totally blew my mind!  It was my introduction to what I know today as leverage.

I immediately realised that if I wanted to succeed in sales, I needed to prioritise my sales efforts and focus on where I could deliver most value as a salesperson – because that’s where all those whales are!

If you want to dramatically improve your sales figures, make sure your time and energy is invested wisely – fishing for whales and not goldfish!

Related posts:

  1. Movement or progress?
  2. Are you fishing for time wasters?
  3. Increase sales & profits quickly



If you liked this post, click here & get future posts delivered to your feed reader. To subscribe to my newsletter & get a FREE copy of “10 Secrets to Success” click here. Thank you!
4 Responses to To make it in sales – fish for whales!
  1. hoh
    September 20, 2008 | 3:46 pm

    thanks for passing on this info.
    i heard someone on the aprentice uk one
    it sounded very irritating and insincere but it could work
    - showing your teeth will make you sales – so smile and show yr teeth – or was it – your smile will make you sales so show your teeth!

    it rymed but these two don’t maybe you’ve heard it
    hopless! memory like a sive – when ever i’m dealing with a non smiler i must say it’s off putting but to have an insincere smiler is worse!
    cheers

  2. jimconnolly
    September 20, 2008 | 4:30 pm

    Hello Hoh,
    Glad you found the post useful. I’m not sure I know the saying you were referring to (and I never watch reality TV shows.)

    All the very best,

    Jim Connolly

  3. Andy
    June 2, 2009 | 1:57 pm

    Well this is unfair – this page appears above our entire Marketing Quotes website on Microsoft’s new Bing search…

    You’ll just have to post about us to make things fair again.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks
  1. Movement or progress? | Jim's Marketing Blog
Leave a Reply


Wanting to leave an <em>phasis on your comment?

CommentLuv Enabled
Trackback URL http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2008/09/16/to-make-it-in-sales-fish-for-whales/trackback/