Growth & Rainmaking Go Together
How many times have you heard the saying ‘When you fall off the horse you get right back on again?’ I heard it a lot as a child while taking riding lessons and the saying is true in whatever endeavor I am undertaking today. My vocation is teaching attorneys and other professionals how to sell, my avocation and passion is raising and training horse and rider partnerships. Through teaching riding I have noticed a trend of development from the first ride with the first major ‘Aha’ taking place the first time you get dumped. The ‘aha’ moment is that you will live through it. Fear dominates your actions until you experience that awful moment and live through it. You think ‘that wasn’t as bad as I expected’ and then you begin making breakthroughs in technique as you stretch your comfort zone.
Move into Fear
Prospecting for business is just like riding through your first fall. We get stuck in a routine and begin looking and sounding just like everyone else. We are in the safe mode and will keep covering the same ground wondering why we are not increasing our personal production or breaking into new markets or landing those really big ones we have always dreamed of. The reality is the professionals who are the most successful who are those who are constantly learning and growing. This involves taking risks and possibly sounding stupid a time or two as we learn. Or even failing miserably as we learn what doesn’t work.
Postmortem Your Break Through Moments
Unfortunately, as human beings, the best lessons learned are often the hardest. My most embarrassing moments in a prospect meeting inevitably are my best training or coaching sessions. You know…the flat forehead moments where your palm meets your forehead and says ‘duh’ as my teenager says. No matter how painful these moments are we need to take the time necessary to debrief these, share with a peer or coach and really look at what happened. Was the concept good, but application flawed? Or do you need to go back to the drawing board? Perhaps you just had a fluke moment with an unusual situation never to be repeated again. Take the time to really do a postmortem on the ‘dead deal.’ Just like the breakthrough moments are in the final 10 minutes of CSI, you will also find your ‘culprit’ right before the ‘train wreck’ of your disastrous prospect meeting.
Don’t Overlook the Train Wrecks
There is a very fine line between an OK prospect who is with you all the way to resolution of their issue and a ‘not-OK’ prospect who is showing you the door and escorting your competition in right behind you. Normally that line is crossed when we say or do something that makes us sound like everyone else who really doesn’t care about their situation and issues. Look at what was going right and what happened when the tide turned. The steps to debriefing a prospect meeting begin with the ending and work backwards from there. This allows you to really look at the final portion of the dialogue and examine what really happened. When did you lost the connection or focus on the prospect? When you understand this you can understand what to do to prevent it in the future. Recognize the ‘Uh oh’ in your mind and stop, re-focus and think about what you would do to change the outcome to a positive instead of negative. Re-create the same situation in a role play with your coach or peer and practice through until you are comfortable
The best way to continue to sound different is to ‘boldly go where no attorney has gone before.’ Take the big jumps! You may have a few big falls, but then again, you will be heading into new territory most are afraid to enter – that of Success!
Have a wonderful day and I wish you Good Selling!
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Guest Blogger: Breandan Filbert has the ability to sift through the product or service ‘noise’ and get to the real basis of relationship building- the people. She partners with her clients to create long-standing highly productive relationships with their clients and referral partners. She has worked with attorneys and other professional service providers to increase their book of business and attain ‘Top Rainmaker’ status within their firms. She is the founder and managing partner of SalezWorks in Kansas City.
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