Not Finishing

Greetings! 

Last Saturday I painted a room in a lake house we just purchased. Most of the room, anyway. Had to leave before finishing because I had to leave to run my daughter's softball practice. Not finishing is really bothering me. I can still see that one corner, still displaying the hideous previous baby blue. I won't get it done for at least a few more days as I'm in Chicago right now preparing for my Telesales Rep College on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Of course, spending those few hours, alone painting, gives one a good opportunity to think about sales. And not finishing. Not finishing. As in taking calls to a certain point, then diving off of the call with no definite commitment for a next action by the prospect or customer. I see sales reps do this all the time. They leave it open-ended, hoping the prospect will do something, but not knowing for sure. And we know that when actions are not defined clearly, they are easy to blow off, and, consequently, rarely happen. 

For example, a sales rep ending a call with, "Well, I'll send out that material and a proposal. Take a look at it, and call me if you have any questions. If I don't hear from you, I'll be in touch." 

Some guilty souls might say, "What's wrong with that?" There's no clear, defined commitment for the next step. And it's not that difficult to do correctly. For example, consider saying, 

"What's next?" 

"What's the next step?" 

"Where do we go from here?" 

"How do we proceed?" 

"Who is going to do what next?" 

And, by the way, be sure you attach time frames. Otherwise, actions without time frames are simply wishes. 

"When should this all happen?" 

"Let's attach some dates here." 

"Let's go through a time line on this?" 

"How long will all of this take for you to accomplish?"

Then set the date for the next call: 

"OK, so we should speak again on Monday, the 21st. Let's write that down in our calendars." 

You can bet I'll finish that last bit of painting. By the weekend.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The people who are really failures are the people who set their standards so low, keep the bar at such a safe level, that they never run the risk of failure." Robert Schuller

Reprinted with permission from Art Sobczak's "TelE-Sales Hot Tips of the Week."
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