How cool would it be if there were a silver bullet in sales and marketing to retire quota and make lots of money? You know what I mean — the one thing we could say or do that magically makes people buy.

It would be cool, but it doesn’t exist. And we couldn’t afford to buy it if it did.  But we search for it nonetheless.

We like the idea of there being one thing we could do today that would make us money tomorrow — something secret others are doing that we want to copy, mimic, and somehow espouse to reach a greater level of success.

True, there are many best practices and approaches to sales and marketing that can lead to riches. And there are exceptions as well as exceptional students of different systems who achieve great success.

But the fact remains there are no silver bullets to sales success and anyone who tells you otherwise is further from the truth than they should be.

Why mention this?

I’m mentioning this because in the series of posts I’ve written about core stories I’m making claims and pointing to possible results. I’m offering what some could believe is snake oil.

The core story process isn’t a silver bullet.  I don’t believe — and you shouldn’t expect — you’ll complete the step-by-step process and instantly close every opportunity you encounter. You’re not going to become rich overnight after completing my program.

The realistic expectation is you’ll improve.

Following the core story process, I expect you will:

• increase your number of sales-ready leads
• find it easier to access and communicate with decision makers
• minimize competitive pressure
• shorten your sales cycle
• increase your close ratio
• improve the accuracy of revenue reporting

Note there are no promises of riches in the list above. I’m not making a claim of immediate sales success and I’m not guaranteeing 100% quota attainment — no one could.  What I’m doing is highlighting outcomes I believe realistic based on the program I’ve developed from my experience. The people I’ve worked with, using principles rooted in this program, have enjoyed those very results. These are realistic expectations we should share.

The point of this post is there are no surefire guarantees of sales and marketing success. And while there are no silver bullets, there should be realistic expectations to improve as a result of partaking in sales and marketing programs.

You should never expect overnight success, but you should demand better and constant improvement. And that’s what the core story process does — it makes you better.