#1166 Seeing What’s in Front of You
An announcement: My new podcast, Selling in the Age of AI, is live! The first episode, featuring the inimitable Mike Larges, is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Mike is the engaging chairman of the board for Rummel Agency, the BEST independent insurance agency in Michigan. Mike's enthusiasm, advice, and wisdom are not to be missed. Find Selling in the Age of AI wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Now for this week:
He's killing me. I see him scrolling, eyes intent on the screen, sitting for five minutes without so much as a bead of sweat or a mouth breath to indicate even the slightest exertion.
He's young – so he's got that working for him. But he is unfit. I'm looking at the physique of a sedentary person. He's sitting on a weight bench but doing the same thing he does at home on the couch.
To be fair, he does a set every five minutes or so, but even that irks me because he does it wrong! His form is awful, and he's more likely to develop an injury than a muscle.
He is effing killing me.
This kid shows up a few days a week. That's huge! For most folks, the toughest weight in the gym to move is the front door, but this kid is here!
What's killing me is that he will probably last a month or two, see no results, and quit. Worse than that, he can say, "I tried working out for months. The gym doesn't work for me." That's like buying healthy foods, filling your cupboards and freezer, and hitting the drive-through.
I would love to help but don't want to be "that guy" in the gym. There must be a half dozen trainers on the floor every time I'm there, and I'm secretly praying he will connect with one.
As much as he pains me, I am grateful for him - he did offer me fodder for this post.
First: Get a coach. A coach can save you years and tears. I hired the great Jane Atkinson at Speaker Launcher.com when I started my speaking business. Jane is widely regarded as the best speaking coach there is. She saved me an abundance of time and some costly mistakes. I learned things from Jane that I might never have learned on my own. Jane's speaker coaching is not inexpensive but is worth more than she charges, and I was happy to invest in myself with her.
Another point I want to make is for every salesperson or entrepreneur out there. This kid is OBVIOUSLY spinning his wheels. Trainers are always looking for clients. You'd think they see what I see, offer advice, and perhaps gain another client. New business rarely pulls into your driveway, beeps the horn, and opens the passenger door for you to hop in. You've got to go find it, and finding it, sometimes, is a matter of observing rather than looking.
If you own a landscaping company, shouldn't you stop by every home with overgrown or dying shrubs? If you're in insurance, are you tuned in to stories about additions and changes people talk about regarding their families and businesses? If you're selling VoIP, do you listen to the way the phone system operates when you call your insurance agent, lawyer, or charity you support?
Leads are all around us. We only need to tune in to grow our business.
Own Your Sales Gene.