I was on vacation with my brother and a group of guys for a week of golf in Scotland recently. If you haven’t been to the home of golf, then I highly recommend it. That being said, I also recommend that you get ready for the event by practicing and playing in the weeks and months leading up to your departure. I used a different methodology which didn’t serve me very well. I had played nine holes in miserable weather one time over the last nine months. I did hit half a dozen buckets of balls trying to prepare myself, but that clearly was not sufficient preparation. It reminded me of the time that I ran my one and only marathon. At the time I was in very good shape and was running regularly. Unfortunately, while I ran nearly seven miles every day, I didn’t run much longer than that almost ever. A friend of mine had quit a marathon, the year before, after 22 miles and I told him I really didn’t understand how he couldn’t figure out how to complete the slightly more than four miles left in the race. So, twelve months later I had cruised through the first twenty miles of the race from Tampa to downtown St. Petersburg when I started not feeling so good. Every step became labored and my time per mile began to dramatically increase. I finished because I couldn’t quit, not after opening my big mouth, but I should have trained harder and been more prepared.
OK, that was a long lead into preparing for a sales call. There is a lot more to it than setting up the appointment and showing up for the meeting. Although showing up is clearly a very important piece of the puzzle. A little preparation goes a long way. It seems many people start thinking about the subject matter for the meeting as they are walking from the parking lot to the front door. You should, at the very least, know what sales are this year versus last year. What is up and what is down. A success story of them selling your product is always great, as well as having something new to talk about. Possibly the success you are having selling a particular product that they seem to be missing. Lastly, try and make it memorable, in a good way. My friend Scott Fanning calls it a "Non Card Carrying Call." While handing someone your business card passes on the requisite information, it isn’t very memorable. Showing up with a mongoose in a cage (that is one of Scott Fanning’s most famous stories), now THAT is memorable. Keep an eye out and one day in the future I will tell my favorite Fanning sales story.
In closing, while in Scotland, my friend Bob Byelick who was prepared, got his first hole in one on the eleventh hole on the Old Course at Saint Andrews. Bob carries a single digit handicap, has been playing regularly for 40 years, yet had never gotten his first hole in one. The Old Course is certainly a great place to end the drought. Congratulations for being prepared and for your accomplishment Bob!
J. Robert Saron
President
Bovie Medical Corporation
Image courtesy of Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
