A Little Mistake That Cost A Salesman All Of His Commission

I first wrote “Selling today is chaotic” in early 2011.

Ha.

Back then we were dealing with “just” rebuilding from the collapses housing crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a debt ceiling of “only” $14.3 trillion going to $16.4 trillion.

Yep. The good ol’ days.

Now, in early 2022, we are pulled in so many more

directions:

• Social media sites are spying on us, selling our information, censoring and brainwashing us

• CRMs are no longer simple, easy, and free

• Conference calls are now Zoom calls, but salespeople still want to “hop on a quick call” to see if there is “synergy” or “to learn more about your business.” UGH!

• Slack channels

• Webinars are still a thing

• Web traffic reporting is more nuanced, detailed, and difficult thanks to new privacy settings put in place because those social media sites and big search engines (who no longer lead with “Do no evil,” got caught doing evil.) 

• Prospecting to business owners and executives who are working from home, thus, on their cell phones, and harder to reach than ever

• Quoting: which has never gone out of style, but now you’re expected to do it without ever meeting face-to-face

• Lunches: are slowly coming back in style

• Dinners: are also slowly coming back in style

• TSA body cavity scans: Thank God for TSA-Pre Check, but let’s admit it: the terrorists won on this front.

• Whining. Griping. Complaining with co-workers.

• Voicemail hell: see the prospecting issue above

• Email: is actually still effective, if you know how to do it right. (Hint: Send drunk emails.)

• Snail mail. (You know, those pieces of paper with stamps? Yeah. Those things still work.)

• Fantasy football

• Looking good for TikTok

• Updating your social media profile with the proper frame for the day/week/month

• Scheduling your 5th 12th 27th COVID shot. (How’s that working out fer ya?)

The problem with all of these is that whether you are distracted, disheartened, or disgusted with the task at hand 50% of the time or just 1% of the time,  you lose 100% of your commission when your competition uses your downtime to make their move.

OUCH!

That just “don’t seem fair”, now does it?

But that “sure enough” is “how the cow eats the cabbage.”