Out of Air

Are you run­ning out of air or are you mis­read­ing the objective…..

Let’s say you’re on the beach, swim­ming just off shore. You notice a shiny object on the ocean floor. You go back to the beach, grab your snorkel and fins, and head back out.

On the way out you see the tide com­ing in. Now you know you need to hurry to see what it is and if it has any value. Your heart races and you find your way back to the spot where you saw the poten­tial trea­sure. You are run­ning out of time.

You dive down and just can’t reach it, you can see it a lit­tle bit bet­ter with each dive but because of the tide you just can’t get there. Finally you come to the real­iza­tion it’s get­ting dark, you are at full tide, and will have to wait until tomor­row to go back for another shot at find­ing the trea­sure you think you’ve found.

You go home, sit down to din­ner and all you can think about is what’s down there. Is it one piece? Is it the tip of the ice berg? Is some­one else going to get there before you and take your gold???

And then… POW! You say to your­self , I am such a dum­b­ass, as you look across the room  your scuba gear sit­ting in the cor­ner of the room….In the rush to get to the trea­sure, you for­got that back at the house  there was an air tank and the other appro­pri­ate tools  needed to attack the objective.

IF only you  would have taken that step back, thought it out, you’d be in pos­ses­sion of the trea­sure instead of eat­ing cold, left­over Chi­nese takeout.

As the year comes to an end, you have those deals out there that your man­ager is push­ing you to close . Then there are those deals that poke their head up because they “found” money they need to spend.  Hope­fully you are work­ing some sem­blance of both

When you’re  work­ing these deals make sure to take that step back. Look at what needs to be done, the tools you have to use to get there, and don’t squeeze your oppor­tu­nity to fit a per­ceived or arti­fi­cial  timetable. You can’t skip steps in the sales process sim­ply because  New Years Eve is 4 weeks away.

Ask your­self: Are you the one blindly push­ing and dis­count­ing or have you qual­i­fied there is com­mit­ment on your prospects side? Will that great end of year dis­count sim­ply go in the drawer just to be demanded in mid February?

Review with your coach THEIR buy­ing process.  Be hon­est, what nor­mally has to hap­pen in your expe­ri­ence to do the type of deal you are putting together.  Do you think you can accel­er­ate that process by pres­sure, effort and/or incen­tive.    Let your prospect weigh-in on the options of a what might work best — a full court press,  a well thought out game plan or a deal-deal they can’t say no to.

The last thing you want to do is push your prospect into some­thing they don’t want to or can’t do.  All that will hap­pen is you will dam­age your rela­tion­ship and per­haps never get that that deal.  Remem­ber you need busi­ness next year too.

It’s up to you, hell maybe you can hold your breath a really long time…. I can’t.