Can you or any of your sales team relate to this story?
Yesterday I thought I’d been stood up by a potentially new supplier. I was sitting in our offices, waiting to meet him … and he finally showed up … wait for it … and hour and 58 minutes late! Believe me, I wasn’t happy … but I was gracious about it because I suppose it could happen to any of us.
As it turns out his car had broken down, but not because of something unavoidable, like mechanical failure … he’d just run out of petrol … and he was profusely apologetic and somewhat mortified.
He’d had to walk 2 miles to a garage – then do battle with a Traffic Warden before he could get away.
He was hassled … and all because he’d let his fuel gauge slip to zero. In his words, “There was never a good time to fill up”.
How ironic is that?! To be too busy for a 5 minute job, and lose 2 hours instead!
Anyway, we came to terms with it … I mean, we’ve all done it, haven’t we? But I did warn him he’d be in today’s email, because he’d got me thinking:
In business there is usually never a “good time” for anything … especially those essential ‘fixes’
We’re all busy, often running around like crazy, headless chickens, but that doesn’t make it okay to skip essential tasks.
Whether you like it or not, it might be expensive at the moment, but filling your car is essential.
And so, for that matter, is growing your market share – especially with your competitors wanting a piece of the action!
Directors often tell me they’d like to crank up the effectiveness of their sales people, but “it’s just not the right time because they’re doing ok in the current conditions”.
They’re too busy fighting fires, lurching from crisis to crisis, recruiting new staff, launching new products and initiatives …. or a million other distractions.
So, they’ll look to do it “when the time is right”, except, usually, that time never comes…until… it’s too late!
Because, as long as they see taking market share from competitors as some kind of extra-curricular activity – an optional extra that they can take or leave – or they’re waiting for some upturn in the market, there’ll always be some other project that jumps to the front of the queue.
So, if you’re thinking: “It’s not the right time”, I want to stress this point:
Growing market share as the world tiptoes out of the pandemic is not optional, or occasional. These days for any business with growth aspirations, it’s the essential building block!
To continue the motoring theme, it should be the fuel that drives your whole sales operation; forget about it, and pretty soon you’ll be running on empty: no new sales, no new customers, no new revenue. One day, you’ll just break down – then you’ll be in big trouble.
So, before the big red warning light flashes, here’s my suggestion …
Take a couple of hours out of your busy schedule to meet or speak with one of Sewells’ business improvement practitioners. Together, we’ll run through the challenges that are holding your sales back, explore your goals and the raw potential of your business that you know is there, but that you are not maximising.
There’s no obligation – and no charge for the meeting.
If you really want to dramatically improve all sales aspects of the business – especially revenues, margins, operational excellence and customer loyalty then please get in touch.
Don’t wait for that perfect time to sort out hitting your targets and objectives for 2022, because, I promise you, it will never come. The best moment you’ll ever get is right here and now.
P.S don’t take our word for it… One of our now customers said this:
“Don’t wait to get started on a programme and don’t think that you have to get everything in place before you start. You don’t. I made that mistake at a previous organisation thinking once I’ve got everything in place then I can get Sewells in and delivery the programme. Because I hesitated and didn’t call in Sewells we started losing money. Big mistake” Managing Director
