How ironic would you find it if a rep told you that he didn’t work today because he didn’t have any appointments set and it was too cold to make cold calls?
Well I found it very ironic, so much so that I decided to write about it here. Yes, that’s right a rep actually told me that today. At first I thought he was kidding around and had a pretty good laugh and then I realized he was serious. I STOPPED LAUGHING.
Not wanting to insult the rep or to try and tell him what to do (I am not his boss and don’t even work for his company) I tried to make a joke out of what he said. He didn’t buy it, he asked me if I was mad at him for not working today. I said simply, I was disappointed because I had taught him better when I first trained him and I knew he knew he was not doing the right thing.
He admitted that he agreed with me, he told me that he knows he should be out there and he even repeated to me all the ways I had taught him to turn the bad weather around and make it work in his favor. He then finished the conversation with,”But I just don’t have the motivation to do it.”
Now I was concerned, I asked him what was going on that has killed his motivation, he said nothing everything was good and nothing has killed his motivation. I asked him what has changed in his business that has changed his work habits, again he said nothing has changed. I asked what if anything in his personal life has changed and he said no. I asked and asked trying to discover something that had made this rep change. According to the rep nothing has changed.
Using one of my favorite closes of all time, the COLOMBO CLOSE I started talking about other things and then I asked him again what has changed to make him not work and he said, “Lorin, I just don’t need the business that badly to go out on a day like this”
I then knew what had happened, SUCCESS HAPPENED! This rep was getting fat and happy and losing his drive to grow and succeed.
For a lot of years I have used pushing a car as an analogy to conducting business, I knew the rep has heard it before, but I dove right into my story anyway. I asked him if he has ever had to push a car (I could almost hear him rolling his eyes) he said yes, I asked what did you need to do when you started pushing the car? He answered he had to push really hard, I asked how hard? He said he needed to put his shoulder to the bumper and push with all his might.
I explained he needed to push so hard because he had to overcome one of the basic laws of physics, INERTIA. The law of inertia says a body at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force. I told him HE was the outside force that had to overcome inertia, gravity and friction to get the car moving. I then asked once he had the car moving what did he need to do to keep it moving? He told me he only needed to push a little. I said that he was right, steady pressure kept the car moving.
I asked what would happen if he stopped pushing? He said the car would roll to a stop. I said right because friction and gravity would take over and stop the car. I then asked if he stopped pushing and the car kept moving what would it mean? He was stumped, he said it would stop if he didn’t push. I told him he was wrong, if he stopped pushing and the car kept going it was headed down hill. He chuckled and agreed.
I told him his business was just like pushing the car (I could hear his eyes rolling again) I said when he first started selling he had to really push hard and get his business going. As his business grew he needed to keep pushing but now steady pressure kept it moving and he was able to get small growth, if he wanted to grow more he started pushing harder until he was where he wanted to be and then he could start applying the steady pressure again to keep his business moving in the right direction.
I then told him that by using the cold as an excuse to not work was like he stopped pushing. His business would slow down and eventually stop and if it did keep going it would be going downhill. I asked him if he was willing to take a step backwards all because of some cold weather?
It took about 10 seconds before I heard anything from the other end of the phone. It started as a low rumble and became a full groan. He called me a few terms of endearment (all 4 letters long) and then told me I was right. I said the words, SUCCESS HAPPENS and he laughed knowing exactly what I meant by it.
We hung up and I was convinced he wasn’t leaving his house today. I knew that he knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I knew he wasn’t motivated to go and make calls.
I WAS WRONG (I am very happy to say). I came home from a candidate’s forum tonight and there were 4 sheets of paper on my fax machine. 1 cover sheet repeating all the terms of endearment I heard earlier today, 1 order, and 2 confirmed appointments.
I am a proud trainer tonight. Not because I talked him into working, but because he went to work the right way and got the job done as he was taught to do. Another thing I have always taught is, if you are going to go to work, do it right. To go through the motions and not be as productive as you can be is stupid.
I can say one thing for sure, this rep wasn’t stupid today!
I invite you to please leave comments about my posts, it makes the site a lot more fun.
Lorin
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