HONEY DO

Today started my wife and daughters spring breaks from school. Like a million other husbands and fathers all across the country today also started me working on my “Honey Do List”.

In my house the list always starts with; 1) CLEAN OUT THE GARAGE. This is a twice a year chore I don’t look forward to but always enjoy the results. As in years past I get my lawn tractor and trailer pulled up to the garage and bring our rolling garbage can next to it. I start at one corner and work my way around the perimeter until everything is either in its place in the garage or in the trailer to be brought to the basement door or my yard barn. As I get everything moved from an area I vacuum the floor and walls to get all the dust and dirt from 6 months buildup out of the garage.

Every time I seem to get more amazed by the amount of dirt that builds up. I live in a subdivision in a city just outside Atlanta, I don’t live on a farm in the middle of a field. How can so much dirt and dust along with the cob webs and dead insects get into my garage in just 6 months?

I then started to think about what I was going to post tonight and as I was working it struck me how similar my garage story is to a sales story.

I am in and out of my garage several times a day and I don’t see the dirt building up. It happens slowly over time and then before I know it I am spending a day or two cleaning up the mess. Isn’t that like many of our customers? We are in and out of the businesses all the time. We don’t see many of the problems building up until we are stuck with a big mess to clean up.

Just like my garage, showing up isn’t cleaning up. Because you are in a customer’s business doesn’t mean that you are seeing the problems. You need to do more than just take orders and tell stories. Ask questions and make sure that the customer is satisfied. If I took a few minutes a week to clean my garage I wouldn’t need to spend hour’s maybe days cleaning it a few times a year.

You need to have your own “Rep Must Do” list, and the number one item needs to be “TALK TO THE CUSTOMER AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE HAPPY”

Lorin