Don’t Be Deceived!

Office photo circa 1975 | Credit: Bill Gillespie

Very early in my sales career my boss taught me to estimate (price printing). In those days the process was manual and time consuming. We were a small company and the big man wanted each of his reps to know how to price work.

It was awesome. I learned how orders were assembled. I wrapped my head around what cost money and what didn't matter. I got my numbers faster and could work my own revisions.

My sales jumped. Service to clients improved and I was called more often. There were plenty of days where I sat in a client's office and calculated "ballpark" numbers over coffee. Customers loved it and were able to manage their selling better too.

Fast Forward: The next time my sales jumped was when I quit doing it (estimates). My boss (different guy at a different company) said, "the most valuable thing you can do for us is sit in front of customers. We'll make the numbers happen. You hook em we'll clean em."

I did as he suggested and sales more than doubled. Then they tripled. I was spending valuable sales time at a calculator. Estimating (my idea of client service) had become a part-time job. I was moonlighting and depriving myself of sales. I was in my own way.

Do any of us do some version of this? Before you answer, how many hours a day do you spend gazing at a computer screen? How about your smart phone? How many of those hours are working a plan or servicing a client request? I have the same question about hanging out in the plant.

Gang, computers and smart phones are Great Deceivers. We tell ourselves we're busy and productive. We tell ourselves we're doing "research." We're in our own way.

These things are tools. They exist to serve you. Think of them like a pencil or hammer. Use it (write something or drive a nail) and switch it off (put the hammer down). Don't spend your valuable sales time peering into a screen.

Go cold turkey for a few hours each day. Phone a prospect. Type a letter, write a note or send a packet.

One of my former reps sends handwritten greeting cards. She sends anniversary cards (one year of trying to meet you) to prospects. These things are good investments of your sales time.

Trust me on this. Sales will happen if you click off of the box and dial the phone. You'll meet more people and sell more stuff. You'll be a real person and warm body to someone rather than another spam message. You'll separate yourself from the pack.

I learned to estimate when I had almost no sales. But I learned what mattered to customers when I quit crunching numbers and started listening to objectives. The money is where the clients are. It isn't in your phone, computer or printing plant.

Don't be deceived by the great deceivers.

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