Are You?

You wouldn’t believe how gratifying it is to get emails after I post a blog. Every week I’m surprised to hear from so many of you who have been affected by what I have written. Last night I was speaking with an old friend, a very successful entrepreneur in Texas. I had no idea he was reading the blog, but he remarked how he is regularly sending about five thank-you notes every Friday. Clearly this guy is a can-do person who read an early blog posting and did something about it. But sometimes - I have to admit - I do get a little frustrated.

First, many of you consistently read the blog and yet have no idea that I’ve written a book. If the title of this blog got your attention, then you might be interested to know it is equally effective as the subject line of an email. It’s great for getting deals unstuck. That’s what chapter four is all about. If you look at the right hand page of the blog you can read all about the book. Take a moment to see it could be of value to you.

Thank you for that bit of self promotion.

The second frustration comes from the myriad of excuses that I hear on a regular basis. Today I was on a sales training call that had some good information about territory and account planning. I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised to hear the excuses levied by various sellers about why aspects of account planning don’t apply to them. I heard things like “I can’t measure my activities because of what I do. It’s different. I follow up daily on my prior day sales calls and meetings. It just wouldn’t make sense.” Really? Or how about this one, “We are heavily involved in our customers’ implementations, so planning is really difficult.” What?

It reminded me of the excuses I hear all the time about whether or not you are implementing the suggestions in my blog postings – like the Texas entrepreneur has. Here are a series of actual (or pretty close to actual) conversations that have happened after each posting (Each title is hyper-linked to the blog posting in case you haven’t read it yet.):

"Lessons from a Top Rep" – Reader, “Loved the blog, you really hit some great points that I totally agree with.” Me, “Are you following your customers and competitors using Google Alerts?” Them, “Not yet. I’m still trying to figure out whom to follow.” Don’t over-think this one. Pick a few and see what happens!

"I’m Going on a Sales Call and I Don’t Know What to Carry" – Reader, “Your latest posting really made me think. I have this big bag that I’ve been carrying for years in to every sales call and yet I rarely ever use the computer.” Me, “Did you carry the bag in to your customer call today?” Them, “Well yeah, it’s a tough habit to break.” Smoking is a tough habit to break! Leave the bag in the car and take in your portfolio, pen and some business cards.

"What Are You Measuring?" – Reader, “It is really true that home based workers should be measuring what we do. It’s a discipline thing.” Me, “So what sales activities are you measuring?” Them, “Well none yet. I’m still trying to decide.” So stop thinking and start doing. You can’t really go wrong here and the results won’t be published. What are you afraid of? Just pick SOMETHING and start measuring. It’s not hard.

These are three of the eight examples that I originally wrote about. My editor (thanks honey!) told me it was too long and too negative so I picked three that stand out the most.

There are those that read and those that read and do. As you read this posting (aka rant), do any of these excuses apply to you? Do all of them? I absolutely love that you read the blog on a regular basis and learn from it. Now . . . go . . . DO! Put an end to the excuses and commit to the things that you can control. Everything else will follow.