Field trip departure time: 0 dark thirty.
What would you do if you were given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at the sales meeting of an organization similar to yours? How far would you travel? Would you jump at the opportunity?
I got that chance today. It started last Thursday evening at dinner. As I enjoyed my buffalo ribeye, one of our producer partners was talking about his top salesman. The fellow speaks at conferences around the country and is quite a successful salesman to boot (those two don't always go together). We talked about some ideas and the fellow's name came up again. I commented that I would like to hear him if her ever spoke nearby. "He is running our sales meeting on Monday," our producer said. "Do you want to come?" I immediately said yes and this morning, our Sales VP and I drove the three hours to their offices arriving 15 minutes before the meeting started.
The topic was the sales pipeline for the organization and discussion was largely designed to bring along a couple of new sales team members. Aside from the details of the meeting, I noticed the enthusiasm of the organization. There was an excitement about selling that permeated the room. There was no PowerPoint. Instead, giant paper notes hung from the walls around the room. Some had prospects' names with information and questions to be answered; others had formulas; still others had messages.
As the lead salesman coached, he walked around the room, referring to the notes, asking questions and waiting for answers. The pipeline wasn't full enough was his concern. Not enough suspects and prospects. Not enough referral sources. "An organization with an empty pipeline is a bankrupt organization that doesn't know it yet," he quoted to everyone. Here are my field trip notes:
80/20 - Spend 80 percent of your time of the 20 percent of activities that will make you successful.
Don't hold others back - There is stuff in the other 80 percent of activities that is part of someone else's top 20 percent of activities. Let them succeed with that. Do what you do well and let others do what they do well.
You are in control - To get to your goal you have to talk to a lot of prospects. Want to talk to fewer? Better qualify those leads and improve your closing ratio. But until that time, get to work. There is no magic bullet.
Get on with the failures - Once you have the appointment, there will be two outcomes: success or failure. The more failures you experience, the smarter you will get. The more successes you have, the more money you will make. Get to the outcome.
Call, meet, get introduced - But get disciplined about getting your prospects qualified.
How are you different? - Make a list. It is probably the same list of things as every other sales person in your line business. Now be different. But don't forget who you are - remember, a magnet has a positive and a negative; one pole will repel but one will attract. It wouldn't have worked with those you repelled anyway. Move on.
Discipline, direction and focus - Decide to get disciplined, know your direction and focus on that goal.
90 some minutes later the field trip was over. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The sales team was ready to go and we were appreciative of an opportunity that doesn't come along very often. Field trips are important. Don't miss an opportunity to take one.