Actually, the origins of Friday, the 13th are complex, a mix of both realities and myths:

The date itself is an extension of the fear of the number 13, known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, which was heavily popularized by fiction writers back to the 19th and 20th centuries and extending, of course, by our own love of the 1980 horror flick, Friday the 13th...and its many haunting extensions. 

The date is shrouded with many myths...or at least unknowns.  There's the actual number 13 traced back to several sources such as Judas who supposedly was the 13th guest at the Last Supper before betraying Jesus. In medieval times, the actual day of Friday was thought to be an unlucky day to begin any important work.   

The reality is evidenced in events such as that on Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the mass arrest of the Knights Templar. Hundreds of these powerful medieval knights were imprisoned and many were later executed.

With that as background, and since, in fact, it is Friday, the 13th, let me shift to the many myths surrounding the profession of Sales since most of these end up costing salespeople unnecessary time, but more importantly are on the wrong side of the equation for building trust and value creation with the prospect.  

Both Myth & Reality:

"Always Be Closing" (ABC) The myth here is that every conversation should end with asking for the sale, often multiple times. Old time salespeople thought persistence meant constantly pushing for a decision, even when prospects weren't ready.   We did a survey with 100 B2B tech salespeople and their corresponding potential buyers shortly after their first meeting. Over 70% of the salespeople stated that that initial meeting was a "good" to "very good" meeting, and that there would be another meeting "very soon".  Only 32% of the buyers felt the same, with the rest stating emphatically that they would never meet again with that salesperson since the salesperson was focused on pushing their products rather than the value they could bring to the prospect.

The reality is that pushing to close rarely works for today's highly informed buyer who is totally focused on the potential business value that a supplier is going to bring to their company. Having said that, there is the reality in the numbers developed from my Tufts Science of Sales course that most salespeople give up after the 6th outreach, and that correspondingly most deals are done between the 6th and the 8th outreach.  

The Myths 

"The Customer Who Objects is Interested" This myth comes from the idea that objections always signal genuine interest rather than genuine concerns. The reality is that this myth leads to aggressive tactics where salespeople try to bulldoze through legitimate hesitations.  A further reality here is that the pursuit of this myth ends up totally alienating the prospect and, of equal importance, is a total waste of time for the salesperson.  As salespeople, our currency is our time, and we need to know when to walk away. 

"Never Take No for an Answer" The myth is that rejection just means you hadn't tried hard enough. This creates pushy out-of-touch salespeople who don't respect boundaries and most often damage relationships.    Think car dealership salespeople. The reality here is that today's most successful salespeople are using the math of their available CRM data and AI agents to be able to know when to walk away.

"Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak" While emotion matters, still today, too many salespeople take this too far, believing flashy presentations and hype are more important than selling the actual product value they can bring the prospect.  I experienced this in real time this week with one of our customers where we interviewed two well-known M&A firms. The first had cobbled together a collection of old slides which were all about them, and had done very little prep. 15 minutes into the presentation, they had lost any interest in all of us on Zoom, but then they pushed on anyhow failing to recognize the lack of energy and attention.  Game Over!  The other firm did the easy-to-do research and began by actively engaging everyone in a discussion around what they were seeing in the market and what a value-defining relationship might look like at different exit levels. 

"People Buy from People They Like" This is an old-time myth based on lunch and dinner selling and time on the golf course with the out-of-date belief that being buddy-buddy is more important than being competent.  The reality is that today's corporate buyers have less available time since 2020 than ever before. As a result, buyers expect that salespeople will provide them with factual value creation rather than waste their time.  In a 2024 McKinsey B2B market report on buying habits across most markets, the results showed that only 30% of buyers wanted to spend face-to-face time with a salesperson.  30% would only engage with a salesperson virtually and never take a F2F meeting.  Most importantly the remaining 30% wanted zero interaction with any salesperson and would work only online with other functions in the company making the actual purchase totally online. The ASPs for this data were $100K, $500K and $1M. 

"Closing Techniques Always Work" This is the myth that manipulative closing tricks like the "Ben Franklin Close" or "The Assumptive Close" were foolproof.  From our old Sales Boot Camp Days, which we ran for 20 years, we know that there are 37 different tactics on how to close a deal, but in reality there were only 2 that worked, and both of those followed the natural rhythm of the sales cycle that had been openly discussed between the salesperson and the prospect during the early Discovery meeting. 

Enough about myths for today since I need to prep for a 7:30 sales call.   Have a great day selling today and enjoy your weekend dancing between the raindrops!  

What is not a myth is that It's time to update your own Sales playbook! 

Think about taking a day out of one of the first days of June to work with us to tune up...or maybe actually create your first sales playbook.  

Here's our free how-to ebooks for a few ideas:

"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
"Writing the Winning Marketing Plan"

We outline ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best people.  We're real salesguys who continue to play and coach the game every day.  

Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com and let's discuss.