--- title: Second-Order Effects and Your Results | The Sales Blog description: "The Gist: It’s important to make decisions in pursuit of your goals and desired outcomes. Making good decisions means considering second-order effects. Before you make a decision, look both at the immediate consequences and the domino effect that may ensue. The actions you take have consequences. Whether positive or negative, the consequences of a single […]" image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_1715236636.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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The actions you take have [consequences](https://thesalesblog.com/2018/06/16/the-leadership-playbook-accountability-and-consequences/). Whether positive or negative, the consequences of a single action can cascade, creating an upward or downward spiral of unintended consequences and outcomes. We often make decisions without considering what are called “second-order effects.” Without looking at those effects, you can’t imagine the third-, fourth-, and fifth-order effects. ![My Favorite Negative Example of Second-Order Effects](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_1407653705.jpg?width=940&height=400&name=shutterstock_1407653705.jpg) [ You need to make sales. You need help now. But you don’t have a sales manager who can give you the time and attention you need. Not to worry, *this FREE eBook will help you Seize Your Sales Destiny.* ![Seizing Your Sales Destiny eBook](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/seizing-your-sales-destiny-ebook-v3-cover-sm-Aug-30-2021-05-04-36-22-PM.jpg) ](https://resources.thesalesblog.com/selling-without-manager-ebook?ref=tsb-thinads) ## My Favorite Negative Example of Second-Order Effects At the end of every year, as we head into the holiday season, it’s easy to spend a couple weeks trying to [close every deal you can](https://thesalesblog.com/2020/07/02/the-best-way-to-close-deals-faster/), but then start to wind down, giving up any attempt to prospect and gain new meetings. You might start by complaining no one is at work, an exaggeration and a generalization that allows you to rationalize coasting through the last few weeks of the year. When January finds you back at work, you tend to avoid prospecting because “people just got back to work and aren’t ready to take a meeting.” All those people who told you in December to “call back after New Year’s” were just being polite, after all, so there’s no good reason to do something crazy like actually calling them back. Just like your December goals fell prey to anecdotal evidence about “nobody” being at work, you let January slip away by convincing yourself that you don’t really need to try to gain new meetings. Human beings are incredibly gifted at rationalizing away their responsibilities. Math, however, doesn’t care about your anecdotes. Say you needed to create $100,000 in new opportunities in January to net out your $50,000 in new revenue, putting you on pace to reach your goals. But because you didn’t prospect in December, you had no meetings going into January. Then you gave up most of January. Now it’s February and you need another $100,000 in new opportunities so you can net out $50,000. But because you lost January, you now have to create $200,000 in new opportunities to net $100,000 in February. In February you struggled a bit, only creating $50,000 in new opportunities, but at least you won both deals. March greets you with a demand for another $100,000 in opportunities and another $50,000 in won business. In thirty-one short days, you need the $100,000 from February plus the $100,000 for March. The decision not to do the work of [creating opportunities](https://thesalesblog.com/2016/10/23/creating-opportunities-qualifying-opportunities/) caused the second-order effect of falling behind, which caused the third-order effect of being desperate for deals. In turn, that led to the fourth-order effect on calling on unlikely deals, finally creating the fifth-order effect of not meeting your goals. ![My Favorite Positive Example of Second-Order Effects](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_1859435254.jpg?width=940&height=400&name=shutterstock_1859435254.jpg) [Win customers away from your competition. Check out *Eat Their Lunch*![Eat Their Lunch](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/eat-their-lunch-cover2-Aug-30-2021-05-04-26-35-PM.jpg) ](https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Their-Lunch-Customers-Competition/dp/0525537627) ## My Favorite Positive Example of Second-Order Effects Your dream client has been working with [your competitor](https://thesalesblog.com/2021/05/12/why-you-should-avoid-saying-anything-bad-about-your-competitor/) for years. You’ve never been able get a meeting with the contacts who decide which partner to use for the outcome you sell. But you have decided to professionally and persistently pursue them using a modern sales approach, one that is built on insights and value creation, ensuring that sales priority is effectively addressed and leveraged. You build a [prospecting sequence](https://thesalesblog.com/2021/01/26/know-how-to-prospect-learn-ways-to-build-a-vigorous-prospecting-sequence/) that is designed to compel them to change and to take the first step of their buyer’s journey, one you intend to facilitate. You start with the telephone because the ability to gain a meeting will allow you to deliver your insights in person. And besides, your contacts are going to love you. But even if that call fails, you have a number of insights that will capture your contact’s attention, and you intend to use them to gain a meeting. Many weeks go by with no word from the contacts you are pursuing. Without you knowing it, though, your contacts have kept up with the insights you have been providing them. Even though their existing partner has been taking care of them for a long time, they are now unhappy with their results. Because you continue to call, you eventually catch a contact at their desk, and they take your call and schedule a meeting. A full month later, you acquire your dream client’s business, displacing your competitor. The decision to professionally pursue your dream client caused the second-order result of taking a particular set of actions, including making phone calls and [sharing insights](https://thesalesblog.com/2019/07/01/overcoming-your-fear-of-sharing-insights/), that proved you could potentially help your client with better results. Those actions created the third-order effect of shaping your client’s thinking and recognizing that you might be worth a meeting. Because you handled the meeting well, you positioned yourself as the right partner, a fourth-order effect. Winning your dream client’s business was a fifth-order effect. ![Your Results Are Mostly Second-Order Effects](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_717395443.jpg?width=940&height=400&name=shutterstock_717395443.jpg) [ Your dream client expects you to know how to help them and what that process should look like. Execute your best sales calls with this *FREE Sales Call Planner.* ![Sales Call Planner eBook](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-cover-sm-Aug-30-2021-05-03-53-81-PM.jpg) ](https://resources.thesalesblog.com/sales-call-planner-ebook?ref=tsb-thinads) ## Your Results Are Mostly Second-Order Effects  The results you produce in sales tend to be second-order effects or some effect beyond the second order, which highlights the importance of aligning your sales priorities to drive meaningful outcomes. We tend to make decisions without considering the causal chain of effects we are creating, especially the potential downward spirals that end with serious negative consequences. From the outside, the downward spiral can look like self-sabotage when the root cause is not thinking past the first order. Success tends to breed more success. From the outside, it can look like an individual has good luck or some talent that allows them to produce certain results. More often than not, however, their success comes from understanding the second-, third-, and fourth-order effects. What you might attribute to luck is really making good decisions around the first-order effects, showing the self-discipline to do what is necessary, without fail, to consistently produce the effects that they are pursuing. The reason that [success](https://thesalesblog.com/2021/05/01/the-only-way-to-judge-your-success-in-sales/) creates future success is that doing the work creates competency and competency leads to increasingly better results. When you are competent and produce better results, opportunities find you, reinforcing your sales priority and leading you to more and greater opportunities. ### Do Good Work: - What decisions have you made that didn’t end the way you believed they would? - Look at a recent decision and review the second-order effects that might still be in your future. - Consider a decision you need to make now and work out the second-, third-, and fourth-order effects. [![](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/eat-their-lunch-cover2-Aug-30-2021-05-04-26-35-PM.jpg) ](https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Their-Lunch-Customers-Competition/dp/0525537627) ##### Essential Reading! ### Get my 3rd book: Eat Their Lunch "The first ever playbook for B2B salespeople on how to win clients and customers who are already being serviced by your competition." [Buy Now](https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Their-Lunch-Customers-Competition/dp/0525537627) ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2021](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2021) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on June 4, 2021 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. You can email Anthony at [iannarino@gmail.com](mailto:iannarino@gmail.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.thesalesblog.com/anthony-iannarino) [Follow me on Facebook ](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino/) [Follow me on Twitter ](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino) [![AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg?width=400&height=400&name=AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/authority) [![ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg?width=318&height=179&name=ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/free-cold-calling-video) ![salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover (1)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg?width=768&height=994&name=salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg) ### Free Sales eBook: Sales Call Planner Planning your sales call improves the likelihood of making a successful call, and it demonstrates to your dream client your professionalism. [![DOWNLOAD EBOOK](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/c9f553be-fbba-4813-9199-95c1603472e7.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/c9f553be-fbba-4813-9199-95c1603472e7) ## Are You Ready To Solve Your Sales Challenges? ![Anthony-Solve-Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Anthony-Solve-Sales.png?width=290&height=221&name=Anthony-Solve-Sales.png) Hi, I’m Anthony. I help sales teams make the changes needed to create more opportunities & crush their sales targets. What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2024-07-25T3:32:54 PM", "datePublished" : "2021-06-04 15:24:30", "description" : "The Gist: It’s important to make decisions in pursuit of your goals and desired outcomes. Making good decisions means considering second-order effects. Before you make a decision, look both at the immediate consequences and the domino effect that may ensue. 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