Is Sales Really a Numbers Game?
So Is It?
The truth is yes and no, depending on how you look at it.
A lot of people will tell you sales is a numbers game, its a number game, its a number game! They’re right, in the sense that you have to go through the numbers to find people who are actually looking for whatever product or service you’re selling, and the more you go through typically the more youll find.. But what If someone doesn’t have a need for what you offer, why would they buy it? Or what if you suck at selling?
Here’s the part people miss. If someone is looking for what you sell and you don’t have the skill to guide the conversation or close, you can still lose the sale. Yet at the same time, no matter how good you get, you still have to go through the numbers to find people who have both a need for what you’re offering and the means to buy it. So the game isn’t numbers versus skill. It’s both, working together. Its Number multilied by skill.. If your skill is a 0, 100 units of effort times 0 is 0… but 100 units of skill with 0 units of effor/numbers is also 0..
So.. really what happens is. Skill changes the ratio, not the requirement
As you develop your skill, you get more effective and more efficient at uncovering who those people are. You get faster at filtering through the numbers to figure out whether someone is actually qualified for what you’re offering.
Jeremy Miner talks about this in his NEPQ approach: the salespeople who win aren’t the ones pushing product, they’re the ones who become problem finders. Instead of pitching, you ask questions that let the prospect uncover their own problem and talk themselves into the solution. That’s a skill. It changes how many “numbers” you need to go through before you get a yes. But it doesn’t remove the need to go through numbers in the first place.
Here’s where people trip up. As skill develops, a lot of salespeople start doing less work. Fewer calls, fewer doors, fewer conversations, because they can technically “get more with less.” And to be fair, that’s a real advantage of skill. But the high performers don’t trade one for the other. They do both!
Why People Plateau
The newer you are to sales, the more numbers you’ll likely need to go through before you land a yes. As your skills develop, that number shrinks. So why do so many people plateau instead of continuing to climb?
Because they stop putting in the input they had when they were new. They lose the hunger. They get comfortable instead of continuing to challenge themselves. The skill is still there, but the volume dries up, and eventually the results dry up with it.
So how does someone actually become a high performer?
They practice and apply themselves daily. Not occasionally. Daily.
They invest in themselves. Books, coaching, conferences, whatever it takes to keep mastering the craft.
They keep putting in effort even after the skill is built. This is the one most people skip.
Training isn’t something you did. It’s something you do, continuously. It’s not a box you check once and move on from. The moment you treat it like a phase you already went through instead of a habit you keep showing up for, you start to slide backward without even noticing.
If you build a strong skill set and pair it with a real willingness to put in volume, you will close more deals. It’s that simple. What’s hard about it is staying in that mode. Continuing to fail forward, knowing that no matter how good you get, you’re still going to lose deals. Nobody, and I mean nobody, closes at 100%. So what is it we need to master? Its the ability to not get emotionally attached to a prospet or to how many number of conversations we are going through.. Its focusing on the action & activity instead of the result.. If you can focus on your input, on your effort then the results will come.. but when you get so hung up on the result your like a yo-yo.. Up-down, up-down, up-down.
The Math Nobody Wants to Hear
Grant Cardone built his whole philosophy around this idea in The 10X Rule and Be Obsessed or Be Average: average effort produces average results, and most people simply underestimate how much action is actually required to win. His answer isn’t to work a little harder, it’s to set targets and put in effort that’s ten times what feels necessary, because the middle-of-the-road approach is what keeps most people stuck.
Once you accept that going through the numbers is simply part of the process, you can stop fighting it and start focusing on what actually matters: filling your pipeline and letting the numbers work in your favor.
Think about it this way. A new salesperson might get 1 unit of result from 100 units of effort. A seasoned salesperson might get that same 1 unit of result from only 10 units of effort. So the question becomes: why would you settle for coasting on 10 units of effort when you could keep putting in 100 and get 10x the results?
When I started in sales, one of my mentors told me something that’s stuck with me for ten years: if you double your rate of failure, you’ll often more than double your results. He was right. Andy Elliott preaches a similar energy in his training: drive is the separator. Winners have it, and it shows up in how much volume and intensity they’re willing to bring to the work, day after day, not just when they feel like it. SO IF YOUR STUCK, TRY THIS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!
Staying in the Hunt
After ten years in sales and now running my own business’s, I’ve realized it really comes down to this: stay in the mode. Dead wish float down stream, but the strong ones swim up current.. Adversity is the first sign that your doing something, that your alive and moving in the right direction. If you keep a growth mindset and stay in the hunt, you’ll always be eating. The moment you settle in, you start to fall behind. Anything that isn’t growing is dying. There’s no such thing as standing still.
Sales isn’t for everyone. But for the people who decide to embrace the journey, it won’t be easy. It’ll ask more of you than you expect. But if you follow through, it can be one of the most rewarding paths there is.
So is sales really a numbers game? Yes. And also, it’s a skill game. The two were never in competition. The people who win understand that skill earns you a better ratio, but volume is still what fills the pipeline. Do both, and you’ll always have a reason to keep showing up.
Share your thoughts! Is this fact or crap? You tell me.. Where are my fellow sales people at with this?!