Having
a Sense of Urgency
“Act
quickly, think slowly”
- Greek proverb
It’s 4:00 and the day is starting to
wind down… imagine, if you will, the thoughts of the following individuals:
The
Customer
Well, I just
left a voice mail
for an account manager at Paragon Publishing. I really need to
get 1,000 copies of their book, The Essential Coding Guide
for our entire R&D department. The problem is, I just got this
request today and I need to get these ordered before I leave since
I’m leaving for vacation tomorrow morning. You know, now that I
think about it, I have a connection of Libris Distributors who can
get these ordered for me today and shipped to us while I’m out.
I’m going to give him a call…
The
Sales Rep
I just got
a phone call but I’ve been putting off filling out this expense
report for two weeks. It’s going to take me a good hour to get
this done and I really need to finish it so I can meet up with
my buddies at Gordy’s Pub. I’ll just let the phone ring through
to voice mail – I’m sure it can wait
until tomorrow morning.
This type of
situation happens all the time. Having a sense of urgency is so
important if one wants to succeed in sales. As many will tell you,
you need to strike while the iron is hot. This applies to prospective
clients but also to those existing customers who probably have
additional funds
they could spend on a company’s products or services.
The consequences
of inaction can be devastating. In the previous example, the
sales rep could’ve literally picked the phone and had a “laydown”
customer place an order that would equal his quota for the month.
BUT… the expense report was more important, right? Wrong!
In order to
provide yourself with a leg up, it is important to act
quickly and provide a client with what they need, faster than
they need it. Imagine a client saying that they don’t need a proposal
until the following week. The rep pushes off the proposal until
the end of the week since the customer is in no hurry. In the meantime,
the customer
receives a call from a competitor who builds a great proposal and
then personally hands it to them… all before the rep even opened
up the proposal template. Who is the client more likely to choose?
I recently had
a prospect talk to us about a substantial training effort for over
300 people in their organization. While talking to the client, I
found out that we were one of three companies competing
for the business. The day after our initial conversation, I
set up a conference call
with the client to review our proposal – a full two days before
it was actually expected. When asked for thoughts on the proposal,
the client immediately commented on the speed and thoroughness of
what was provided. What about the other companies? Well, the biggest
competitor was not thorough and the second one still hadn’t
provided the customer with a proposal. What I did with the client
was to set the bar. In fact, my goal was to set it so high that
the other companies would be racing to catch up to our proposal.
As a sales
professional, you need to have a sense of urgency to provide
yourself with a competitive advantage. Some of the things that
should not be put off include:
·
Returning
phone calls or e-mails
·
Supplying
information to unanswered questions
·
Providing
material and literature
·
Writing
“thank you” notes
·
Sending
“thank you” gifts
·
Delivering
proposals
·
Answering
the phones in a timely manner
·
Visiting
client sites
·
Asking
for the sale
During the time
that you hesitate, circumstances can change that can cause you to
lose a sales. Requirements may shift… competitors may move in…
people can change jobs and lose/gain responsibility…
Having a sense of urgency should be
part of your modus operandi. Strike when the iron is hot to increase
your sales and lock out the competition.
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