Life Lesson

There’s a reason why entrepreneurship and sales are talents and skills; something that can be improved, studied, and trained.

While there’s plenty of work to put in to get good at the upfront convincing, the marketing, the initial conversations – what sets a remarkable salesperson apart from a mediocre one is being able to note when a potential customer is on edge, rather than ready.

There are people that will certainly follow your buyer journey, but there are others who will somehow find themselves at the purchasing moment from a different path.

That path, might be one of necessity or exhaustion or complete and utter disappointment in the alternative they just tried last night and was ineffective. They’re going to be tired, a little defeated and emotional.

The problem, of course, is that it’s easy to view these people as convinced of your story, sold on what you’re offering and understanding of your value.

But the reality is these people aren’t. They’re on edge, rather than ready.

The tenured entrepreneurs and caring salespeople will see that even at the end of a buyers journey, different people need to be treated different.

And no surprise, it starts with listening, not selling.

Stay Positive & Make More Than Just A Sale

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That’s what everything popular or successful is; they are outliers first.

The avant-garde. Adopted by only a few.

But a few is all you need.

A few to tell a few of their friends who tell a few of their friends until your idea is no longer an outlier.

Feeling like what you’re delivering is an outlier in your category isn’t always a sign of failure; it’s proof that you’ve started something.

Then the real work of continuing it sets in.

Stay Positive & A Few Is All You Need

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The phrase is broken. There’s not a solution to your problem.

There are, however, solutions.

Multiple ways to solve. Multitude of ways to fix. Many ways into a solution.

That’s why something that works, doesn’t just work, it works to varying degrees.

Finding a solution a problem isn’t the hard part.

The hard part is finding the optimal solution.

And that starts with solving and then trying to solve better.

It helps if you write it down.

Stay Positive & Solve (Then Solve Better)

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Showing up early once might earn you brownie points, but what changes culture is if you do it often.

Submitting your project early might allow for more time to discover minor bugs, but to prevent the same thing from happening, we have to submit early and often.

Early AND often.

Stay Positive & Once Is Not Enough

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Saying you haven’t had the time is a cop out. There’s no way that you literally couldn’t have done the thing you’re saying you haven’t had time for.

What is true, however, is that you haven’t made the time.

Which is hard to admit.

Because it sends a signal of what to prioritize and clearly communicates it to others (particularly the person or group for whom you haven’t done the action for).

But being clear and accountable for your priorities is a symbol of strength, not of weakness.

So go ahead. Admit to others you haven’t made the time. Admit to yourself that you haven’t made the time. Own it.

You are, after all, the decider of what gets prioritized or not.

Saying we haven’t had the time is letting ourselves off the hook.

Stay Positive & Make Time Save Time, While Time Lasts, All Time Is No Time If Time Is Past

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If you have a business idea, practice pitching it to your dog before a potential business partner.

If you’re trying to get a loan for an idea of yours, pitch it to a bank you don’t care if they give you a loan for it or not before the bank you hope to work with.

If you have an idea for how to change the culture at your organization, share it with someone who has no authority to implement the idea first and then share it with the executive team.

After you’ve shared your thoughts with folks (or animals) who don’t quite have a significant say in the matter, you’ll find that your pitch is buttoned up and strong for those who can give the green light to make what you want happen.

Stay Positive & Practice Makes It Easier To Convince Those Who Do Matter

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You can tell people to do something. If the status structure is right, they’ll do it; it’ll get done.

But you can also inspire those same people to do the same action and it’ll get done, too.

While face value it might appear the results are the same, there’s no arguing that one action will likely have been done better, it will have been enjoyed more by the one doing it, it will be more likely to be done again in the future and probably even without any prompting.

Worth evaluating if you’re ordering people around or inspiring them.

Stay Positive & Results May Actually Vary

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