MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH

The Maxwell Smart saying, “Missed it by that much”, has become a part of the American Language. I can remember sitting and laughing so hard every time he would hold his two fingers up an inch apart and say this. Today however, when I say this I am usually not laughing.

Today, “Missed it by that much”, has become the saying used when someone just misses an opportunity. It may have been an opportunity to make a sale or an opportunity for a promotion. It doesn’t matter what the opportunity is, if you Missed it by that much, it isn’t good.

Why do we sometimes come so close to something we want and fall a little short? More times than not it isn’t because we did nothing to help ourselves. It is because we didn’t do enough to help ourselves. Can you remember when you were in school and you were disappointed with a grade you received from a professor? I can hear myself saying, “I studied for 5 hours”. The results from the test clearly tell me that maybe if I had skipped watching TV and studied an extra hour, I may not have been so disappointed with the grade I received!

This same idea follows us into the sales field. The first step to any sale is always preparation, you need to be prepared for the type of customer, the type of business, the type of products, and all the pieces of the sales puzzle that come together to get the order. The amount of time taken to gather all this information can be different for each and every sales call we make. As reps we can’t allow ourselves to compare one sale to another when preparation time is concerned. I have listened to reps say they spend 15 minutes pre sales call or 30 minutes pre sales call getting ready. I have had reps tell me they spend an hour a night getting ready or several hours a week preparing for the calls they are going to make. I always ask them how do they determine if 15 minutes is too short or an hour too long? Most of the reps respond with, “I know what I need to make the sale”, and yet they are rarely above average for their close rates.

I have been a big supporter of treating each sale as if it were the only sales call I was ever going to make. I never allow myself to stop getting ready for a call until I AM READY FOR THE CALL. Close enough isn’t close enough for me. I want to know every detail I can, I need to know all the variables, I try to learn as much as possible. Why am I so diligent about this? I want to be able to control as much of the sale as I can. By spending the time I do preparing for the sale call, there is very little that can be thrown at me which I am not ready for.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I don’t close every sale, not even close. However I will always be in the top 5% of reps when it comes to closing sales. I have found that no matter how much time I spend, every now and again a customer will throw a classic curve ball at me and leave me standing there with my eyes wide and mouth shut!

I have said, “Missed it by that much”, to myself after sales calls. I have also said, “BULLSEYE”. If you find yourself missing more than you think you should, try spending more time getting ready, it will keep you from spending so much time with your fingers held up an inch apart!

Lorin