Getting Ready to Get Ready

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Daily Sales Tip: Getting Ready to Get Ready

This is a good time of the year to write an article like this. This is the getting-ready time of the year. We pause and reflect on the past year, lick our wounds, count our blessings, and lay the ground work for the coming year. We're getting ready. Getting ready for the holidays. Getting ready to chase a whole new set of dreams. Whew! All this getting-ready stuff is enough to wear a person down.

In sales, there are getting-ready activities, and there are getting-busy activities. Unfortunately, too many salespeople (one in four) are getting ready to get ready. There is a time to get ready and a time to get busy. Getting ready is planning, preparation, and rehearsal. Too much getting ready and you're procrastinating, which is really avoidance behavior. These are the people who stare down the gun sight of life but rarely pull the trigger. Getting ready is important, but getting busy is imperative to your success.

Years ago, a management guru earned a living by encouraging managers to "ready, fire, aim." This was his way of saying, "There's a time to plan and a time to act." Planning is an important part of the sales process, but sooner or later you have to make the sales call, especially the tough one. I met a salesperson in Baltimore years ago who was a planning master. He researched, planned, and prepared extensively for sales calls. He was masterful in his analytical thinking. The problem is that he didn't really want to make the call. And planning was his way to avoid it. For him, getting ready was his way of not getting busy.

Too much getting ready and you're not chasing your dreams. When my college-aged daughter played training league soccer, I helped coach her team. We were winning one game by a huge margin, which my daughter was responsible for, and it was the third quarter. She was sitting on the sidelines. I went over to her and noticed her long face. I asked her, "Honey, what's wrong?"

"Oh Daddy, the coach pulled me out of the game."

"That's okay," I reassured. "You've had a good game and it's time for the other kids to get a chance to play."

"You don't understand, Dad."

"Sure I do," I boasted.

"No, Dad, you don't. I can't kick goals if I'm not in the game."

I looked at her and said, "You know, Amanda, people pay me a lot of money to say that kind of stuff."

Imagine my five-year-old daughter giving me a lesson on motivation: You don't kick goals if you're not in the game. This was her way of saying, "You can't get busy if you spend too much time getting ready to get ready."

So, what are you getting ready for? What are you thinking about doing? What are you dreaming about for the new year? Are you getting ready to get ready or are you getting ready to get busy. Remember Amanda's advice: You can't kick goals if you're not in the game.


Source: Professional speaker/author Tom Reilly (TomReillyTraining.com)

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