Joe da Silva | Speaker | Trainer | Coach
~ If you are no better tomorrow than you were yesterday, then you've wasted today.
Two words that no one wants to hear: “You’re fired.” Two words made famous during the running of ‘The Apprentice’ on television. Two words that some in the United States would like to say to the current President. It has in all likelihood happened to you if, you have been in this game as long as I have. It certainly has happened to me. That will be another blog for another time. However, did you know that as a sales person you can ‘fire’ your client?
“Okay.”
Really? Are you actually going to do that? Lets’ face it, we have all done it and some of us are still doing the: “Okay.”
Really? Are you actually going to do that? Lets’ face it, we have all done it and some of us are still doing the: “Okay.” To compound this, we sincerely believe that they are a hot prospect that will be calling you back ‘any day’ now with the purchase order. If you look at the days of the week, there is no ‘Any day.’
This is a statement that should be firmly in the minds of anyone who comes out of our educational system. It should be the motto of every elementary and high school, as well colleges, trade schools and universities. There is a big difference in being educated and learning. I submit to you that you know some highly educated people who have not learned anything along the way.
Someone that values your service, who wants what you offer and who feels it’s important to them. That question and the answer came from a book that I have just finished called: Five Most Important Questions by Peter Drucker.
That may seem so simple that you may be wondering why do I even bring it up. The better question may be, however, who is my customer? Who is it that I should be really focused on? Who is that does need, want and can afford my product and service? Have you actually sat down and written down who your customers are? If not, I would suggest that would be a great exercise to do.
You have hit a rough patch. It seems that everything you do is not working. You are getting further and further behind from your goals. You have not changed a thing and all of a sudden it doesn’t work. You are beginning to wonder how this could have happen. Then you get that next ‘no’ and you are even thinking that you may have to leave the industry that you love so much. What’s the use? I’m giving up.
Recently, I was helping out a friend by doing a survey on the trucking industry and found something rather interesting. The reason for gathering the data was to understand why there is such a shortage of truck drivers. What the data showed primarily was that first, there really does not appear to be as large a shortage as people perceive. Secondly, the major reason for any perceived shortage is not due to lack of manpower, yes, this includes women also, but the lack of compensation. It seems that trucking companies are involved in a race to the bottom by continually dropping their prices so they can win the business.
