It's late Friday afternoon and a salesman is visiting his aunt in
the nursing home. It turns out she is taking a nap, so he sits down in
a chair in her room, flips through a few magazines and munches on some
peanuts sitting in a bowl on the table.
Eventually, his aunt wakes up, and the salesman realizes he has absentmindedly finished her entire bowl of peanuts!
"I'm sorry, auntie, I've eaten all of your peanuts!" the salesman declares.
"That's okay dearie," his aunt replies. "After I suck all the chocolate off, I don't really care for them anyway."
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that in order to be successful in sales they need to blaze their own trails. Too often when starting a new sales job, the temptation is to immediately start going after the leads left behind by a predecessor. Really? If those leads were any good, wouldn't the old rep still be there? Chances are the rep before you has already been through them and sold all the easy ones. Calling those leads left behind would be like eating those peanuts after someone else has licked all the chocolate off. Don't waste your time.
"A lazy person, whatever the talents, with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends." - Cyril Connolly
Eventually, his aunt wakes up, and the salesman realizes he has absentmindedly finished her entire bowl of peanuts!
"I'm sorry, auntie, I've eaten all of your peanuts!" the salesman declares.
"That's okay dearie," his aunt replies. "After I suck all the chocolate off, I don't really care for them anyway."
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that in order to be successful in sales they need to blaze their own trails. Too often when starting a new sales job, the temptation is to immediately start going after the leads left behind by a predecessor. Really? If those leads were any good, wouldn't the old rep still be there? Chances are the rep before you has already been through them and sold all the easy ones. Calling those leads left behind would be like eating those peanuts after someone else has licked all the chocolate off. Don't waste your time.
"A lazy person, whatever the talents, with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends." - Cyril Connolly
