Remember those good ol’ days back in college when you knew you had finals lurking just a couple of weeks away and you committed to study a little bit each night? You promised to be disciplined and not wait to cram everything in at the last minute. And what happened? Sure enough, finals week was staring you right in the face and the proverbial all-nighter was inevitable. You crammed for exams and scrambled to finish your projects.
Panic set in and you wondered how you let this happen, swearing that you would be more disciplined as the next semester came to a close.
Fast forward 30 years later, and yes, I admit that I’m still the same procrastinator that I was in college. But here’s good news! According to author and sales expert Stu Schlackman, procrastination can be a good thing for sales, as we explain in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.
Procrastination As A Positive. So what is the advantage of procrastination? The more you wait to accomplish a project, task or creative endeavor, the more time you have for your ideas to simmer and develop. Ideas can mature in your subconscious without you realizing it.
When team members have brainstorming sessions, multiple ideas are put on the board. As we look at the ideas, we start to combine them to form new ideas. This is how creativity happens. It’s connecting the dots of multiple ideas that brings about new ones. In other words, it leads to great achievements and innovation. So procrastinating might not be so bad after all.
Quantity Over Quality. Sometimes quantity is better than quality. The quantity of ideas you have can lead to new ideas that are more unique and creative and just might fit the customer’s need.
This makes total sense to most sales professionals. We multitask, having many different tasks to perform for numerous accounts, and that can help us be more original and creative. It’s like when your kids are playing football or any other sport—their grades are likely better than when they are not playing sports. In other words, you are more productive when you are busy. The more output you have, the more chances for originality.
So the bottom line when preparing for a major customer presentation or developing a large proposal is to gather your team members and generate as many ideas as possible as to why your company is the right fit. Ask, “What can we communicate about our company, our value, or competitive advantage?” The higher quantity of ideas, the better your chances are of having quality ideas that are more original than those of the past.
As a sales professional, you are the quarterback on the team for your clients. You are responsible for touching or leading every aspect of the opportunity. You must be involved in crafting the proposal, making the presentation, understanding the customer’s needs and even understanding their credit situation. You need to leverage all your experiences to become more original.
It’s been said many times that you learn more from the sales you lose than the sales you win. That’s where you gain experience. You learn from your mistakes, and for the next opportunity you have more experience and insight as to what can work versus what might not work. You learn how to read customer situations as you relate them to those in the past that were similar. In other words what’s worked versus not worked.
When the pressure mounts at the last minute to get a presentation or a proposal ready for a customer, realize that all the experience you’ve acquired over the years gives you a mental advantage in preparing that you just might not realize.
The next time you’re down to the last minute in preparing for a customer, realize there might be a silver lining in those final moments of preparation. Be open to the fact that a great idea for the customer might be just minutes away.
Source: Stu Schlackman is a sales expert, accomplished speaker and the author of Four People You Should Know and Don’t Just Stand There, Sell Something. With over 25 years of success in the sales landscape, he provides his clients and audiences with the wisdom, techniques and practical advice to compete and win in business and in life.
