BUSY ACCOMPLISHING NOTHING

I’M BACKKKK

After about a month traveling around the country working with reps I am finally back in Atlanta for a few week. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post during my trips but time just wouldn’t allow it.

I hope that you will once again get in the habit of checking the Training Buffet, Help Yourself, Monday thru Friday for a post. READ, LEARN, ENJOY!

Lorin

Today's post

I am absolutely convinced that sales reps are the busiest people in the world. They have got to be because every time I ask one they tell me that they are so busy they don’t have time to do anything else.

This was especially apparent a few weeks ago while I was working with a rep. We got in his car 7:30 sharp and we were at our first sales call promptly at 8AM. We met with the manager and the rep and manager spent over 90 minutes talking about everything from politics to hunting. When that conversation ended the rep started talking about business, which lasted about 5 minutes until the customer found an opportunity to ask about the reps dog (I found out later they had the same breed and had discussed this before). In the next 45 minutes I found out more than I ever needed to know about peek-a-poo’s, and made up my mind to never own one.

The conversation finally came back around to business and after another 30 minute presentation we walked out with NOTHING! Not even an appointment or referral.

We then got into the car and spent about the next 15 minutes entering information into our CRM and looking up information on our next stop. I started to get the feeling this was going to be a long day. I wasn’t disappointed.

I got back to my hotel room at 8:45PM after making 7 sales calls and NO sales.

The next morning 7:30 sharp I was back in the passenger seat heading to our first sales call. On the way I asked the rep about how he felt about the previous day. He excitedly told me how great a day it was and that he loved a “BUSY” day because the time flew by.

Since we didn’t have a set appointment with our first stop I asked him to stop so we could get a cup of coffee and talk a little.

I took out my phone and showed him the notes I had taken from the day before. I let him read everything I had and asked him if he thought I was being fair. He said no, that we were busy all day and that my notes said that we wasted a lot of time during the day. I could tell that he was upset with me and was convinced that we had a productive day.

We sat over our coffee for about 45 minutes and I pointed out to him all the times that he should have cut the conversations off about chit chat and come back to business. I told him that if he had done that we could have seen no less than twice the amount of customers. I even ran the numbers for him, if he makes 7 calls a day times 5 days a week that is 35 calls. If he just added 50% more calls that would be 50 calls a week. Right now he is selling an average of 1.7 customers a week he could increase that to 2.5 keeping the averages the same. That would mean 3 more sales a month which would put him above quota when added to what he was now selling.

Did all my words sink in? I don’t know. I did see a difference for the remaining part of that day and the next day. We made 11 calls that day and 16 calls with 2 sales the next day. I think I proved my point pretty well. Only time will tell if he continues the activity level and keeps things moving in his sales calls.

Now let’s focus on the big picture, and that includes each of us and our normal day in the sales field. How much time do we spend doing non-productive things like chit chatting about everything BUT business? How much time could we add to face to face selling if we simply formed the habit of minimizing the chatter and maximizing our sales calls by getting down to business?

I know how important it is to build rapport with customers, I will never tell you NOT to chit chat and talk about the things that form a relationship, but you can’t forget what you are there for. SELL!

Lorin