"Yeah, Doc, what's the news?" asked the salesman when the doctor called with his test results.
"Well, I have some bad news and some really bad news," admitted the
doctor. "The bad news is that you only have twenty-four hours to
live."
"What? What! What could possibly be worse than that?" gasped the salesman as he sank to his knees."
"Well," replied the doctor, "you didn't return my call yesterday."
Moral of the story. True sales professionals understand the
importance of returning phone calls as soon as possible. In this day
and age, prospects and customers don't like to wait. If they can't
order from you, they will order from someone else. While not returning
phone calls right away won't necessarily mean the end of your life, it
could mean the end of your business.
"You must know that at any moment a decision you make can change the
course of your life forever: the very next person you stand behind in
line or sit next to on an airplane, the very next phone call you make or
receive, the very next movie you see or book you read or page you turn
could be the one single thing that causes the floodgates to open, and
all the things that you've been waiting for, to fall into
place." - Anthony Robbins
The librarian was fast asleep at three o'clock in the morning
when the phone rang. The salesman on the other end of the line
asked: "What time does the library open?"
"Nine o'clock." replied the librarian bleary-eyed." "And what's the
idea of calling me at home in the middle of the night to ask a question
like that?"
"Not until nine o'clock?" asked the salesman, disappointed.
"No, not until nine o'clock!" repeated the librarian angrily. "Why do you want to get in before nine o'clock anyway?"
"I don't want to get in," replied the salesman. "I want to get out!"
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that in order to
succeed at sales not only do they have to make a lot of calls; but the
calls they make need to at the right time of the day and the call needs
to be of value to the prospect. If you consistently call at the wrong
time of the day, asking the same old question like, "Are you ready to
buy yet?" the prospect will just consider you annoying rather than
considering you for their business. If you aren't adding any value to
the situation, you'll never be able to get into the account; instead,
you'll find yourself permanently locked out.
"Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers."
- Tony Robbins
