COME BACK NEXT YEAR

We are at the time of the year when we find out how many of our customers and prospects have lied to us. That’s right I said lied to us!

For the past 8 weeks we have all had a tremendous group of customers and prospects tell us the same thing, “Come back after the first of the year”. Well check your calendar it is after the first of the year and we are 2 and in some cases 3 days into our work week. How many of these “COME BACK” calls have you already made? More importantly, how many of the customers and prospects that asked you to come back actually bought from you or even gave you the time to do a presentation?

Don’t despair, this is a natural as a customer telling you they don’t have time to listen to you. The fact is you and I are mostly to blame. We know what we need to do to get an appointment, we need to get a specific date and a specific time. Yet when a customer or prospect told us to come back after the first of the year we nodded our heads, gave them a big smile, wished them a happy holiday and off we went on our merry way.

Cheer up, like any other non-committal appointment, this one had disaster written all over it. However because it was the holiday season and so close to the new year we just moved on in hopes that these wonderful people were telling us the truth.

WAKE UP! If we know what to do and we don’t do it I need to tell you that it is our faults not the customers or prospects. We as a professional sales rep needs to suck it up, and stop chasing these appointments.

I am NOT saying don’t call on the business, I am saying work these into your plan as if the promise was never made. This way you don’t drive miles out of your way chasing smoke and you won’t be disappointed.

Depending on how the sales call is going you may or may not want to remind the customer or prospect that they asked you to come back. Sometimes reminding them can seem like added pressure and can cause them to look for other excuses not to buy or blow you off.

Sales, is today as it always has been, the easiest hard job in the world. It is also the most rewarding job in the world.

Lorin