13. November 2009 by admin.

Man it has been a tough selling season. I have a client  with an unbelievable sense of urgency. But once I sent them the proposal they jumped right back on the fence.

I have another prospect that either gets the service I offer or they better start making up excuses to the tax man on why they didn’t. Talking about a sense of urgency. This company knows they need it or else.

So I’m sitting in a friend’s office and we got on this subject of these businesses I have on the fence. He starts rattling off prospect after prospect of fence sitters that he is tracking. It’s been that type of season.

But hey I’m in sales and he’s in sales. The sales profession has unbelievable highs and unbelievable lows. Every month and every quarter we start all over. My wife doesn’t understand  how we can start at zero month after month. But I know that I’m not really at zero. As long as my pipeline is full then I’m fine.

The morale of the story is that in times of tight budgets, slashing staff, and a recession that can’t get out of its own way, you need to keep the pipeline as full as possible. Yea… I’m bummed that I have a couple of people on the fence. But I need to get over it because I got tens of thousand of dollars in the pipeline and I need to stay in the game.

YOU DO TOO - Get over it, keep calling, get more prospects.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

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13. November 2009 by admin.

I just ran into this today and I got taken to the woodshed. I have been  killing myself trying to get a job out for my new client and then BAM! He says… “What do you mean that you are ready to go, we are not ready?”

With the kind of projects I work on that tells me that the last two weeks and the three other people involved on this project have just wasted a whole lot of time and money. So how high should you jump when the client or boss calls?

Let me tell you what I used to do.  This is my tried and true method of jumping through the hoops. When the boss calls maybe just maybe you should wait at least a day before jumping. The reason, things change and you could spend an entire day on stuff that doesn’t matter - i.e.: Busy Work!

Sales organizations have no time for busy work. This is typically the only revenue producing group in the entire company. As an ex sales manager DO NOT SEND ME BUSY WORK… I will ignore it and go about my day.

How high should you jump? Well this past week I moved away from my tried and true method of waiting at least a day before jumping. This was a new customer and I have the staff and the contacts to get the job done. The client was hot on the subject. Then, BAM! I just got burned.

If you have a hyper boss or a hyper customer you will do yourself a world of good by just waiting at least 5 minutes, 15 minutes or even 1 day before acting  on what ever just popped up in their heads. Hyper people make bad decisions. STOP let the situation come to you and then proceed.

This is 20+ years of experience talking. You have to wait before firing off that email to your team, or you will be taken to the woodshed. Right now the beating stings but by tomorrow I will use my 20+ years of experience to get everyone back on track.

David Peterson - President: Atlanta Sales and Consulting

Thinking about a new method of sales training… Read This

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