A young sales person peeped into the office of someone who looked
like a sales manager, muttered something then started walking away.
After retreating a little he seemed to change his mind, seemed to head
back to the door, where after some hesitation, he started to back away
again. The Sales Manager, feeling sorry for the young man, and surprised
that he was so badly trained, called him in to his office.
"You're a salesman aren't you? What are you selling?"
"Sir....
uh ... yes ... I'm a salesman. I'm sorry to bother you. I was selling
insurance, but I'm sure you don't want any. Sorry to have wasted your
time."
Feeling sorry for the
young bungler the Sales Manager bought two policies to give the young
salesman some confidence and then started teaching him about selling. He
said ... "You should have different preplanned approaches for
different kinds of prospects."
"But I do, Sir. The one I just used is my planned approach for Sales Managers. It always works. Thank You!"
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that in order to succeed at sales you have to be good at pre-call planning and executing your approach. Like a skilled chess master, a sales professional has to always be thinking three or four moves ahead. Being able to anticipate what the other person is going to do in a given situation gives you a decided advantage in arriving at your desired outcome. Like chess, sales requires a good opening, middle and closing game to earn the victory. Is your game as sharp as it should be? Chess masters are perpetually studying, researching, discovering new tactics, scouting the competition and mastering their craft in order to improve their performance and obtain a check. Sales professionals should be doing the same, perpetual improvement, perpetually working towards their next check.
"Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your own actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment." - Gary Kasparov
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that in order to succeed at sales you have to be good at pre-call planning and executing your approach. Like a skilled chess master, a sales professional has to always be thinking three or four moves ahead. Being able to anticipate what the other person is going to do in a given situation gives you a decided advantage in arriving at your desired outcome. Like chess, sales requires a good opening, middle and closing game to earn the victory. Is your game as sharp as it should be? Chess masters are perpetually studying, researching, discovering new tactics, scouting the competition and mastering their craft in order to improve their performance and obtain a check. Sales professionals should be doing the same, perpetual improvement, perpetually working towards their next check.
"Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your own actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment." - Gary Kasparov
