IS IT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?

This summer my family and I went on 2 vacations. The first one was just my wife and I. We took an Alaskan Cruise. On the second vacation the whole family went to Florida. These were both GREAT vacations. It took a lot of planning for both.

The cruise took weeks to plan. Finding the right ports of call, finding the right price, finding the week that we could be gone, making the reservations, booking the flights the hotels the transportation to and from the boat. Then there were the excursions at each port of call.

The Florida trip was just as complicated, where we want to go, when, booking the condo, finding what was in the area to see and do.

A lot of preparation went into both vacations. I am sure that each of you reading this has had to make the same decisions and make the same preparations for your vacations however big or small they may have been.

Think for a minute, what would have happened if you left one part of the preparation out? Maybe you forgot to book the hotel rooms. This could make for a very bad vacation if you are sleeping in the car each night because there are no rooms to be found because everyone else is on vacation in the same area.

Each part of the preparation is equally important. Forget one item and it could ruin the entire experience.

Isn’t making a sales call the same way? Think of all the preparation you should make before walking into a customer. Do you know where you are going, what you are going to show, how that service or product can be used by the customer, what value does it have to the customer, what problem is it solving for the customer? You need to be ready for all these and many more facts when you make every call. If you forget one of these it can make for a very bad sales call.

The biggest difference is that if you screw up a vacation, you can take another one next year, if you screw up a sales call you may never get another chance to sell that customer. Screw up enough sales calls and you may never get another vacation!

As a trainer, the rule of thumb is that you should practice for at least 4 hours for every hour you are going to present. When I put on an all day training session, I usually practice a week for it. The same equation can be used for a sales call. You need to prepare at least an hour for a 15 minute sales presentation.

Now let me tell you a little trade secret, once I have put on the all day session I spend another week critiquing it. I continue to do this until I have it perfected. Once I have it perfected I only spend about 2 days critiquing it. The process never stops. Guess what, neither does you process. After every 15 minute sales call you should spend an hour going over what you could have done better until you have it down so good that you only need to spend 30 minutes going over the call.

Does this sound a little crazy? It isn’t. I look at sales as an art. Just like any art form the more you practice the better you will get at it. Music, painting, sculpting, dance, it doesn’t matter what art form you look at, the more you practice, the better you get.

The best news of all, the better you get the more you will want to practice. In simple terms, IT FEELS GOOD TO WIN! Making the sale is a win and you will work harder and harder to keep making the sales once you start. You get on a roll and you don’t want it to end.

Keep in mind the opening thoughts of this post. Every detail is important. There are no shortcuts. You need to practice each step to the sale over and over again.

If you will work as hard on making sales as you do on booking vacations, you will soon be able to hire someone make your vacation plans and just enjoy yourself and your family time.

Lorin