“I had incredible success throughout my selling years, always getting promotions, always having incredible performance reviews, and more opportunities that would come to me because I became renowned for my ability to take a territory and expand it and grow it quickly.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1733
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. As we kick off the week and the month, today’s tip comes from Meshell Baker, our favorite sales confidence igniter and authentic selling crusader. Here she is:
Meshell Baker: Hello. Today, we’re going to talk about becoming ride-along ready. Now, as a seller and a sales leader, we understand that there are ride-alongs. These could be in-person or virtual, and it simply means that at some point, one of your manager or supervisors or someone on the leadership team will want to shadow you to evaluate how your sales and sales performance are coming along.
Now, one of the keys to success is being ride-along ready. What I discovered as a seller in my first pharmaceuticals job, I had an incredible manager who taught me to become ride-along ready. At that time, I had samples in my trunk, and I would meet him at a parking lot of a diner, and we’d go over what the day’s agenda was, and he would sit with me in every doctor’s office I went, and we were in the waiting room, or if we were in the office and listened, and then in the car, there’d be some critique, and there’d be lunch, and then I’d drop them off.
The whole point of becoming right along ready, the principle that I am imparting to you today is I had incredible success throughout my selling years, always getting promotions, always having incredible performance reviews, and more opportunities that would come to me because I became renowned for my ability to take a territory and expand it and grow it quickly. And that was because of the principle of ride-along ready, which simply means that every day you prepare as if your boss, your direct boss, supervisor, manager, whatever that title is, was going to come and shadow you.
So if you knew that tomorrow, the next day, and the next day, and the next day, there was the possibility of someone shadowing you, how would you prepare for your day? For most people, it’s going to be very different than their normal when they know no one’s watching. When you want to be a top performer, a top seller, win the trophies, the accolades, be recognized, have the opportunities open up for you at every juncture in your career, you will show up like somebody is watching you and following you and evaluating you.
Now, this does not mean that they are. This is different from judgment and judging yourself and being over critical of yourself. This is simply understanding what are the tasks that you do when you’re being evaluated with someone right next to you shadowing you? How do you prepare for your date? How is your desk? How is your vehicle? How are you dressed? What are the questions What is the research you’ve done on about the accounts that you’re about to call on, the clients you’re about to call on? What is the research that you’ve done on the supervisor or the manager who is about to sit with you so that there’s not these long pauses of uncomfortable having nothing to say? Do you have conversation? Are you someone who is enjoyable to be around, someone that’s valuable to your counterparts, your colleagues, to the organization? What do you know about the company, the values, the vision, what’s going on? How the company is performing financially? So I say this to say it’s not simply just being able to sell that makes you attractive, that creates opportunities.
Ride along ready, becoming ride along ready means that every day, and this is not 100% we’re human, so there’s no perfection. And to strive for your goal is that you are prepared that any day that someone will come and want to shadow you, you will be absolutely totally yes and welcome. No hesitation. Yes, come on. We’re going to have an amazing day. And that person gets out of your car or walks away from your desk or lobs off of their computer, they’re going to sit back and go, Oh, my God. So and so is incredible. How are we overlook this talent that we have in this company that is ride-along ready. So I want you to think about that, make a list, and if it’s not happening, go make it happen and have a great day selling being ride-along ready.
Scott Ingram: I usually don’t add commentary to the tips, but I love this one! For more from Meshell, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1733. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!