Who Wins?: Preparer or Go-Getter

Sellers have one ultimate goal: they must sell!  Sell an idea, sell a product, and when possible, find ways to sell a little more.  And NO to people who like to blow things out of proportion: I'm not suggesting selling your body, lunch money or your neighbor's dog. When you begin in sales, nerves tremble especially during your first few sale attempts.  I know this very well from experience, and it's completely natural.  Nerves cause hesitation! "Let's have some dry runs", "let's practice until perfect" , "let's do whatever to stall me from having to place a call"...again, completely natural nerves. So how do you move onward?  From here, there are two types of people that emerge:
  1. The preparer (qualitative): This person practices the hell out of scripts to the point that his/her pitch becomes a second language.  Cover every possible element that may arise by the prospect or client.  Focus on top-notch quality, never show a sign of weakness.  This persons strives for no stutters or embarrassing moments.
  2. The go-getter (quantitative): This person accepts that failure is inevitable, especially at the beginning.  Realize that there's no way on Earth that a perfect answer can be provided for any question or scenario.  Be less prepared, but willing to jump quicker into sale attempts just to try.  Experience and repetition counts for this person.
So who wins? Which type of sales person will pull ahead in the short-term or long run? Imagine your boss asks you for an update about how you're doing in regard to sales.  Which would you rather tell?
  • "Boss, I haven't made an attempt yet because I'm making sure that my "pitch" will be flawless.  I just need a little extra time to smooth out the wrinkles of xyz."
  • "Boss, I crashed-n-burned a couple times.  I tried xyz but realize that I need to change my approach to XYZ."
Success or failure, it's been much easier and better received by higher-level colleagues when I say that I tried.  Why? Because just like them, experience teaches improvement.  How much improvement can you accomplish when you are stuck in preparation? Don't spend too much time preparing.  Too much may be perceived as cowardly.  Disagree?  Have this conversation with your boss and please tell me he/she disagreed.  And do you agree with the following statements below?
  • Preparation produces flawlessness, but inescapably causes delay.
  • Go-getting produces flaws, but inescapably causes progress.

What the @#$% Entelechy

uhhhh definitely one of those unheard of GRE words....more to come. I'm at the end of reading a business book that grew popularity in the 1990s, particularly in the IT world.  It's entitled SPIN Selling written by Neil Rackham.
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I'm enjoying it, and have recommended it to my friends (25-33 yrs old) who are at the beginning of their selling and or marketing careers.  Why?  For me, it's provided some smart insight into what executives/decision makers think and consider when going through a sales process and what types of techniques are most effective to get conversations moving forward. Neil also talks about one of his favorite words, Entelechy.  Dictionary.com defines this word as a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.  I define it as taking a dream or aspiration and turning it into a concreate, real substance.  But sad to say, which I plan to discuss with my friends is that "The sad fact is that we generally work harder and more effectively to learn knowledge than translate our knowledge into skills" (Neil Rackham) We surf the hell out of the web... And we learn tons.  I just saw this commercial demonstrating this idea through a spelling during my recent visit to the States.  It demonstrates how people absorb tons of information, and we are becoming more knowledgeable.  Via facebook, favorite blogs, favorite journals that are becoming ever so accessible, we can talk about anything.  I can tell you about problems going on in Afghanistan to the latest gossip about Paris Hilton.  Heck, if you give me 5 minutes, I'll tell you about where to book the most luxurious Transatlantic yacht ride and when the 2nd generation iPad is to become available.  We all can do this and yet at the end of the day, what are we going to do with all this knowledge? Sadly, but realistically speaking, most people won't do much. We will continue to complain about our governments, bosses, ongoing problems in the world because it's easy to do.  It's easy to ridicule "others" for inappropriate behavior or actions because they are held responsible, not you.  And interestingly enough, we are knowledgeable enough to criticize others, yet most of us will not actually attempt to change them or as Seth Godin suggests, the status quo.  Most of us will simply go on day after day complaining rather than trying to spur a change. And that's the the problem.  In doing so, we are not using our knowledge to reach our potential, our ability to change things.  There's probably a countless of times you wished for something, but how many wishes did you try and change into a reality? How about the next time you feel like complaining about something, ask yourself if you would challenge yourself to change it.  Would you try to fix the problem because let's face it, the world would be far better off.  And you would probably feel more self-gratified as well knowing that you strived to reach your potential. As for the commercial  I mentioned about: