by Tim Roberts
She rose before the group, smiling, maybe even excited. One can never tell for certain.“Got a victory for us this morning?” I asked, “Or, a sales challenge you’d like to share?”
“Oh, neither. Actually, Tim, I think you would call this a ‘lesson learned.’ To be honest, four lessons learned.”
Ok, now I was curious. “Please share, good sister,” I said with the smile and curiosity of my best 10-year old Timmy voice. And then, with joy, she spoke.
“I blew four major sales calls last week,” she said. And then, still smiling, sat down.
Everyone in the room knew this woman had been in our Sandler program for a while and their collective eyes all shifted towards me as if to shout, “Yikes, Tim, that’s not a good testimonial for your program!” To be candid, I took a deep swallow myself, regained composure and then asked her, “Uh, anything else you’d like to say? Can you give us a little insight?” Of course, my tone was really begging, “Help me. Get me out of this.”
Rising again, she came clean and with strength. “I’d like to tell the group…READ MOREI blew four major sales calls last week but for once in my life I’m happy to tell you I knew exactly what I did wrong and the errors are correctible and won’t happen again – ever.”
“Ah, grasshopper,” my ego breathed contently. “So proud of you. Aren’t lessons learned a gift?”
Folks, there’s a silver lining within every call gone awry. The skill is to be able to name it. “I suck!” can be a powerful confidence builder. Hone your craft, use a system and you’ll find those moments slowly drift away into the pile of all old correctible errors.
At Sandler Training Trustpointe we help our clients embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. To learn more about blown opportunities, systematic selling and gifts from above, call Tim Roberts at 317-845-0041 or tim.roberts@sandler.com.
Tell us more, good sister, so we can all rise above.
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