-10 in Vermont this morning. Not much better here in the sales world of Boston with the wind howling through the dark canyons of State Street. BTW, remind to slap upside the head the first salesperson in July who I hear complaining about "Hot enough for ya?"
The full beauty along with the harshness of another Vermont winta' has finally grabbed everyone's attention in our tiny village of 647 hardy Vermonters. The Boys on the Bench down at the Winhall General Store are already telling tales from this recent holiday about "those crazy flatlanders". Of course, at the same time, they're also hunkering down for another couple of months of heavy snow and ice during which they'll continue to squirrel away more stories and the money earned from overcharging "those crazy flatlanders". Another sure sign that I know that it's going to be a very long winta' is that the LP (short for Little Princess) has just announced plans to go to Florida for a couple of weeks. It'll now definitely be months before those groundhogs start giving up their shadows.
With 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground in Vermont, critter tracks are everywhere. In the woodlot and down by the river that runs along the property, it's easy to pick out the squirrels, rabbits and coyotes who come and go as they please. Deer tracks are noted by their absence since they've now retreated to the protection offerred by the heavy pine trees up on the ridge. All of this seems to be within the normal proceedings of an early Vermont winta'...except for that one set of tracks that doesn't seem to fit anywhere.
Right before the 24" storm last week, I noticed multiple tracks coming out of the woods of a what looked like a very large coyote, (clearly not a dog) but not matching anything else that either I or the LP had seen before. Various animal track books (Where else would one have multiple books on animal tracks but in Vermont?) didn't help, and I was immediately reminded of the last time there were unknown tracks around the house, resulting in the disastrous war with the fisher cats a few years ago. Still don't know what's going on, but I have concern enough for our cats and my own general interest in the local critters to call in Pete (Occupation: Wood Cutter & Professional Tracker)-one of the true good ol' boys in the valley to figure it out. I've seen him do this before during the war of the fisher cats and know that it will take him less than 10 minutes to make a conclusive diagnosis.
When you think of it, whether it's Vermont critters or professional salespeople, we are all known and judged by the tracks that we leave. In the profession of sales, those critically important tracks that are seen by our customers and our peers are always...
- the personal reputations that we bring
- the accompanying reputations of our employers
- the years of experience and market knowledge that we have
- the specific selling skills and tools that we have in our toolbox
- the ability to provide both short and long term solutions to our customers
In the world of Sales, the consistent training and personal awareness surrounding the polishing of these five bullets are the key differentiators for the most successful salespeople that I know. Product knowledge? That's a given. Relationships? A given also, and quite frankly not worth much in today's time-crunched world.
How Do You Rank?
A good exercise for this weekend would be to take 90 minutes and rate yourself on a 1-10 scale against these five bullets, and, most importantly, then put together a 2013 personal training program that would improve your rankings by the end of June...and then again by the end of December. So, for example, I rate myself on the 3rd bullet above as only a 7 as it applies to my fluency in social media skills; therefore, my 2013 objective is to somehow get to be a 9 by the end of the year.
Give it a try! It won't take long, and for me, it's always a very self-awakening process, plus the process sure beats pretending that you're going to live up to that New Year's Resolution to lose 15 pounds.
I'd also be interested in hearing your comments on what else you're planning to do to get in shape for this winter's selling season as we now charge headlong at full spped into the year.
- More product training?
- Attend one or two sales seminars?
- Add specific tools to your sales toolbox?
Welcome to 2013...and Good Selling!
It's going to be a great year!
Jack,
Head Coach
For a few of our Sales Tools, CLICK on the toolbox...
