Your "A" Game

Time with clients is valuable. The time we spend in front of clients and decision makers (internally and externally) should be similar in proportion to the time a professional athlete spends improving their talents and skills. Professional athletes spend 90% of their time preparing so they can spend 10% preforming.

Sales people that bring their "A" game can move the relationship forward. They are ready as a result of investing significant time in solid preparation. Moving forward may not mean getting your way or getting a signed deal during the sales call but it does mean you are ready to take the next step.

Don't step blindly into the future. You should know what you need to accomplish before you walk in the door and have a pretty good idea what the next progressive-move forward will look like. You cannot be effective if you aren't emotionally and mentally aligned. Prospects, internal decision makers and client's can smell anxiety and they will eat you alive if they sense you are anxious.

The time you have and the time your client's have is precious. Treat time as one of the most precious and valuable tools you can leverage. When viewing time as this vitally and critically important, you will modify your behavior to make the most of the opportunities you have and begin to bring your "A" game every opportunity you have. The best and perhaps only way to learn this is to go out and get your nose bloodied (figuratively). You have everything to gain by bringing your "A" game into your business activity and everything to lose if you do not.

Dancing in the Rain

Just a few years ago we took a trip deep into Mexico. One of the stops was in the jungle mountain town of Xilitia where the eccentric architectural work of Edward James is located. The place is amazing. The main part of Xilitia is across a lush green valley from the Edward James exhibit. After touring the exhibit we traveled across the valley into the colonial downtown area. It was Sunday. The market was thriving with hundreds of shoppers and there was a festival taking place. Part of the festival, features a big dance floor in the heart of the town. The live music was wonderful and even though I had never danced the Mexican dance, Huapango, I was enchanted with the enormous amount of energy and pure enjoyment emanating from the hundreds of dancers, so I jumped in! After a few songs and getting my heart rate up to 1,000 beats per minute, I got the basics down, so I danced and danced and danced. Suddenly one of the regular and fierce afternoon rain showers blew in and to my astonishment, nobody stopped. Not the musicians or the dancers or me. It was wonderful and liberating. Dancing in the rain that Sunday afternoon reminded me that far too often we get stuck in doing what we have always done and fear letting go. You cannot dance in the rain while holding onto your image or giving any concern to what others think of you. There will be days that are overwhelming and you feel that you are not getting anywhere because what you are doing does not appear to be working, the clouds of doubt will gather. On those days I strongly encourage you to take a step back, let go, listen to the music in your soul and "dance in the rain"!

Did you hear that?

One of, if not the, most important exercises you can engage in while interfacing with prospects and clients is to listen. Listening is a learned behavior and will get you farther down the road to a trusted relationship than almost anything short of showing up with a check! People love to talk and they especially love to talk about those things that are dear to them. Listening is a skill and one that requires focus. More often than not many people listen so they will know what to say when the other party has finished talking. Listen to learn. When listening carefully, you can learn not only from what is being said but from what is not being said. Listening can be very difficult especially if you are in the group of people that live to interrupt. Interrupting means that what you have to say is more important that what the other person is saying. Interrupting is rude. When the other person is talking, take notes so you can respond quickly and precisely about what you heard them say. If you are compelled to interrupt always say: "excuse me for interrupting". But interrupt at your own peril. People love people that will listen. Two ears-one mouth, you do the math.

Stand your ground

The very essence of selling is, "Helping people make the right informed decision". You cannot build your business based on what you think, but you can build a very successful business based on what you know. Gathering the right information (the facts) from your prospects and clients can, and should be a very enjoyable exercise. The right information is that set-of-facts you must know in order to make the right recommendations. The right information you harvest will help your client make the right decision. One of the most important facts you must know is that the truth is your most reliable ally! Facts really do speak for themselves. Do not be a sales person that just wants to make a sale. If the recommendation you are considering making to a client or prospect is in the best interest of all concerned, because it is based on the facts, then make it and stand your ground. An untruthful sales person anywhere is bad for truthful sales people everywhere. The truth will have to be good enough!

Do it right

There is more than one way to do things, but more often than not, there is a right way that is better than all of the others. Experience is a great teacher and doing things the wrong way, will often get you the experience you need to do things right. Socrates said" What we have to learn to do we learn by doing." Just do it. We have all heard and seen that tag for a while now but perhaps we do not really appreciate the gravity of just how important it is to just get moving. Today I was attending a board of directors meeting and a topic of discussion was weather or not should, we as a board, take on a big, first-time (for us) project. My position was, after considering the ramifications, was that we should just do it. We would learn how to do things right because we would have to commit to "not doing it wrong." Simple enough, but doing things right requires a commitment. Make a commitment today!