Do Something! or Lessons from a Beet Salad

"Collapse Time" is one of my personal core values which every day for the past several decades continues to be more deeply a part of who I am, or at least who I keep trying to become. There are several reasons why I believe through experience, reflection and observation, that this is one of the attributes that separates uncommon and remarkable performers from the pack.

First, among the more poignant discoveries of the human maturation cycle is the realization that time is finite. The world's richest folk, even the world's most worthy folk (usually very different concepts) can't buy or bargain for more. (60/24/7/52/365, hopefully to three score and and ten and maybe some more...that's all there is...best case). Applying this fact to our business endeavors, every moment we use, or don't, during our business day is gone...finito...sayonara! So the quicker we accomplish the task of the moment and move immediately on to the next, the more we get done. If we collapse time well and get substantially more done than the average seller, we tend to be uncommon performers.

Hmmm. The quicker we work, the more we get done; Not particularly profound but very elusive for most people. Why would that be? Some are lazy but we'll move right past them because they are small in number and we can't unlazy them in any event. But some who may seem lazy are not, but are actually at a loss as to how to move forward and are therefore experiencing anxiety. These folk get paralyzed by their fears and insecurities.

Many years ago on a beautiful Fall Saturday, very shortly after I awakened, I became "sure" that I had fallen victim to a serious medical problem. I called a specialist who said he'd be delighted to see me on Monday next and suggested that I relax until then. That was about like telling a mosquito not to bite. So for the next couple of hours I mentally went over my will and more or less whined like a baby to my wife. When her attempts to calm me with rational discussion about the myriad possibilities, other than terminal illness accounting for the symptoms at hand were exhausted, she marched me out to the yard, stuck a rake in my hand and said, "DO SOMETHING! RAKE UP THE LEAVES!" I did and within minutes the anxiety and the dead leaves were gone. I did something...anxiety fled...something was accomplished.

Another paralysis generator is fear of failure. "Seven calls in a row with not one, 'Sure, I'd be glad to see you'. I can't go go through that again. Perhaps I'll just sit here and stare at the phone until 5:00 PM." The solution to this "failure is guaranteed course of non-action" is no different than in the prior case. DO SOMETHING! Re-think your phone approach, call a current client with an industry up-date that you came across last night. Go to your new prospect resource(s) and add twenty-eight new names to replace the seven who said, "No thanks." Call back one of the seven and ask for reconsideration because you are "so sure you can be of help to him." Pick one of these or 38,712 other possibilities without a moment's hesitation and get started. Why? Because time is finite. You can't bank it. When the moment is gone, it's gone forever, and because you are determined to fill your moments productively, because you COLLAPSE TIME, and do more and are uncommon and are on the way to becoming a remarkable sales executive.

Great Selling!

P.S. It was the beet salad at dinner the night before.

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Teamwork

Available for Corporate and Individual Consultation, Training and Speaking
rsherman@PilotGroup.Biz
212-486-4446