In a coaching session with a sales person from one of our clients the other day, they shared their excitement over receiving a lead from an excellent prospect with great potential. I asked if they had followed up yet and they responded, no, "It's a great opportunity so I want to make sure that I make a great call, I'm still in the process of "getting ready" to make sure I have everything right".
Sales people often avoid taking action and can form a bad habit of always "getting ready". In fact, I like to refer to this as the "getting ready disease". You 've heard some form of it before, or maybe have even been a victim of it. Some common "getting ready" traps are:
I'm getting ready to make calls...
I'm getting ready to write that proposal...
I'm getting ready to follow up on that great lead...
I'm getting ready to make that tough phone call...
Sadly, companies often perpetuate and foster the "getting ready" disease. I can't tell you how many times I have seen companies hire sales people and not allow them to make calls because they need to "get ready". You know, they need to "get ready" to sell by learning product knowledge, researching their customers and the market, or "boning up" on the competition. I've even heard sales managers tell new sales people "we really don't expect you to sell anything for the first six months, you're just not ready". Can you guess what happens? They don't sell anything for six months!!... proof again of the self fulfilling prophesy!
The getting ready disease is just a synonym for "procrastination", the root cause of which is the "fear of failure". We procrastinate, stall or put off what needs to be done because we are afraid that we might not be able to do things "right" or "perfect". Not being able to do things right will cause failure and so we avoid acting for fear that we might "fail". Our fear "paralyzes" us and creates in-action, which in the sales business (and many other vocations) will guarantee the failure we fear so much! It is a "negative spiral", causing us to engage in non-productive behavior.
The next time you find yourself getting ready, ask yourself will delaying the call to "get ready" actually lower the chances of having a successful outcome? You might just find that waiting may have a more detrimental affect than not "being perfect". More often than not "a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow!".
Action Step: The next time you find yourself "getting ready" take action.
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