Rule #1 Does not Always Work

Rule #1 does not always work

One day I sat in a meeting with two other employees from my organization. We had taken the pains to drive through a rather unpleasant situation that was put together by an unusual rainfall the night before. Well, we had arranged this meeting in the early hours of the previous day and we knew we had to honor it; rain or shine. In less than ten minutes into the meeting, a little argument built up from the negotiations regarding the purchase of the property that was advertised to the client. To cut the long story short, we left the meeting very disappointed because we left without a closed deal.

What had actually happened?

When we got back to the office, I sat down in my disappointment to reflect on what had just happened. I penned down some notes for you to take along on your career journey.

1.?????I realized that this had been a rush meeting with no prior #research done to know more about the developer and his development. We walked into the meeting knowing little to nothing about the developer and the project except for the pictures the sales personnel had sent to me.

2.?????The knowledge we lacked proved in our delivery. When the property owner made reference to prices on the market as compared to what he was offering, we had no idea the comparison he made to even think of proposing a counter offer. We were just students being lectured when we should have been in a meeting for negotiations.

3.?????In my line of work, one essential trait that sales people must possess is speed. The ability to respond with swiftness to a request is undeniably a tool to keep that lead and nurture it towards closure. The more time you take to respond to a lead, the lower your chances of closing the deal. Now I realized that this may not always be a necessary tool for all aspects of the job. Generally, speed is a definition for how fast something moves but how fast it moves does not always how well it ends. Yes, to responding to client enquiry on time. Yes, to finding clients what they need on time but not exactly a yes to other things such as rushing a negotiation just so you do not lose it and forgetting to do background checks before a meeting.

Let’s face it. Sometimes, we tend to approach every task having rule #1 in mind. When you start a new job role, you can be so fixated on the first rule you were taught so much that you tend to approach every task with the same mindset (which is not necessarily a bad thing).?But, it will be helpful to pause and play in your mind the outcome you desire and test whether rule #1 will be the right foot to put forward. If it isn't, think of new ways to go about the task at hand and remember to ask for your help if you need it.

It's a long journey out there. I wish you the best of luck!

#career #careerpath #careerdevelopment #salesjob