“Because networking is a good idea, but particularly with those colleagues who are on my team, it was great to talk to them to see what they were running up against to try to keep your ear low to the ground to see or hear what was going on in the rest of the company.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 74
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You are listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today, we’ve got another tip from my friend and regular contributor, Jeff Bajorek. This is a two-part, but like with all of these multipart tips, they also stand alone. Here’s part one:
Jeff Bajorek: You know, it’s kind of funny when you think about it because you’ve talked to people almost constantly on a day to day basis but professional selling can be one of the loneliest careers anybody can ever have, particularly if you’re in field sales and you don’t reconnect with the rest of your team at the home office on a regular basis. But especially, if you’re out there in the field on an island and things aren’t going as well as you’d like them to. Everybody has those rough patches and nobody understands that like another field sales rep. So what I used to do was I would routinely call other sales reps in the field. Most times they were the ones working in the same company as me in the same division as me but sometimes they weren’t and sometimes they were even competitors. Why? Because networking is a good idea, but particularly with those colleagues who are on my team, it was great to talk to them to see what they were running up against to try to keep your ear low to the ground to see or hear what was going on in the rest of the company. What are you hearing? What do you think about this? What do you think is going to happen when we hit our number this quarter or when your manager doesn’t hit as number this quarter? What do you think could happen as there any moving around going on? What kind of success are you having out there? What’s working for you? What’s not working for you? How did you approach it? How did you get creative to win that deal? You know that rumors spread like wildfire and I want you to be careful and avoid as much gossip as possible, but you know that the rumors of the victories travel just as quickly. Pick up the phone and call the source. Develop your standing in your reputation among your colleagues. Be the one that they want to call when things aren’t going so well. Be the one that they want to call when you knock it out of the park on that big deal. But you know that these conversations are not only entertaining, they break up your road trips to for, you know, the two hour travel time before that next meeting. You know, they reconnect you with each other as a team and they also stimulate creativity for how to do what you know is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. So use the resources that you have. Go back to the days when you were watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire five days a week and use a lifeline, phone a friend. These colleagues are the most valuable resources that you have that you are likely not using. And the more you utilize them, the better everybody gets.
Scott Ingram: This is a perfect time for this tip since we just wrapped up the end of a month and the end of a quarter. And I’d love to know who you’re going to pick up the phone and tell us at DailySales.Tips/74 and as always, you’ll find links to all of the great Jeff Bajorek resources there. He also sends these over as videos as well, and frankly, he’s kind of fun to watch. So check that out and then come back one week from today for part two of Jeff’s phone a friend tip. I’ve seen it, it’s even better. But before then, swing by tomorrow for part three of Dale Dupree series of tips. Thanks for listening.