“Our grand business is not to see what lies
dimly in the distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” —Thomas Carlyle
The Three Rs
are familiar to most people. As a child, we quickly learned that Reading, ‘Riting
(writing) and ‘Rithmetic (arithmetic) were the keys to scholastic success. Mastering these three key disciplines, was
the foundation for success in all other courses.
Likewise, professional
sales people are familiar with the Three Ps. They know that Passion,
Persistence, and Patience are keys to selling success. The sales community includes
people who have passion, and some people who are persistent, very few salespeople
are patient. The patience of some sales
people is best illustrated by the impatient petitioner’s prayer, “Lord, give me
patience and give it to me now!”
The Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
defines “patience” as, “bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint.” While
this definition is correct, may people would not go so far as to describe the
majority of their selling experiences as, “bearing pains or trials.” They would
quickly agree that many of their selling experiences do require them to be calm
and forgo complaining. Some sales relationships require forbearance and
long-suffering.
If we simply define
“patience” as the act of being patient, we discover four ways to profit utilizing
this selling gift.
1. Patience is the ability to
uncover the real needs of your customer or prospect. If they don’t have a
problem, they don’t need you or what you are selling. Patience is spending time
asking questions to discover how you can help solve the customer’s problem.
2. Patience shows you respect
your customer and their time. Impatience is attempting to get an order before
you have determined if there is a need for your product or service. Thus, impatience causes a sales person to
focus on the sale and not his or her customer. While a sense of urgency is
important, impatience is deadly
3. Patience helps to take a
large goal and break it down into manageable tasks. Facing an 8% sales decline, salespeople use
patience to develop action steps to replace that shortfall and get back on
track. Without patience, you push yourself to make up the shortfall
overnight. Customers sense this
doggedness or pushiness, and they often respond in a negative way, creating
more missed sales.
4. Practicing patience helps
reduce stress, tension, and frustration. Therefore, patience is a prescription for living
longer and living a happier life. Take control of your health by practicing
patience.
Obstacles and
problems confront all travelers on the road to success. Patience and
perseverance often determined how far you travel. John Quincy Adams once wrote,
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties
disappear, and obstacles vanish.”
Successful
sales people know the result is always their final judge and patience helps
provide a favorable verdict. Commit to being patient. Remember, with time and
patience the caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly.
Check out my book, MENTOR IN THE MIRROR on Amazon
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