Have you ever missed the "moment of truth" in your selling process?
- Prepare
- Put the prospect "in your sights"
- Pull the trigger
Through the trees, down the slope, across the ravine, up the opposite slope, and along the ridge - the hunter had been trekking through the brush since dawn. Finally, with the sun high in the sky, he had a clear shot at the trophy bull elk he had been tracking.
With the stock of his Weather by Mark Vrifle planted firmly against his shoulder, the hunter positioned the cross hairs of the scope for a perfect shot. Letting his breath out ever so slowly, he increased pressure on the trigger and then...then...
Well - after all that work, all those hours of preparation, did the hunter pull the trigger?
Of course he did. That was his goal from the outset. Everything he had done up to that point - choosing the hunt area, obtaining the appropriate license, researching the terrain, choosing the appropriate caliber rifle, practicing his marksmanship, sighting in the rifle scope - had prepared him for that one moment. His goal was to come home with a trophy elk...not a story about the trophy elk that got away.
You don't have to be a hunter, or even agree with the sport of hunting, to learn a valuable lesson from the story.
Preparation
When you deliver a presentation, you must be no less prepared than the hunter. You must have fully qualified the opportunity and decided for yourself that, in relation to the prospect's needs and goals and given the resources the prospect is willing and able to invest, your product or service really does provide a best-fit solution. You must have discovered the criteria by which your presentation will be judged - and decided that you can meet those criteria. And, most importantly, you must have secured a commitment from the prospect that he will make a decision at the conclusion of your presentation. Not only that, you must be resolute about obtaining that decision.
Without the preparation, without your own commitment for a decision, you may be able to get your prospect in your sights, but you won't be able to pull the trigger and bag your "trophy sale!" (See also Rule #36: Only Decision Makers Can Get Others to Make Decisions.)
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