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Early in my career I found that I was skilled in one particular area of sales. Of all the sales skills one can have, I had this one in spades. I even used to brag to my sales manager how talented I was in this area. For some reason he was never impressed.

Then one day he gave me a sales tip that told me why he wasn’t that moved by this special aptitude of mine. What he said changed everything for me in my sales career.

“Of all the sales tips my sales manager taught me years ago, this one had the most impact.”

I Was the King (or so I thought)
I was the king of getting prospect appointments. They couldn’t say no to me. I was awesome. However, there was one problem, and my sales manager would soon open my eyes to it.

While I seemed to have good sales skills in setting prospect appointments, I was not exactly the king of sales. I was falling short of my sales budget far too frequently. Being new to sales I reacted like every other new sales professional, I made even more appointments. We know from previous posts on this sales blog that doing more of what isn’t working usually makes things even worse.

The Light Comes On
Then my sales manager, in a stroke of perfect timing, taught me a lesson I’ll never forget. I was once again demonstrating to him how hard I was working by showing him the number of appointments I had scheduled. He looked at me and said, “Scott, it’s not how many prospects you have on your calendar; it’s how many of your prospects have you on their calendar.”

He was 100% correct.

Sales Tips to Remember
I’ve learned since that time that we can arm-twist prospects into making appointments with us. These appointments frequently turn out to be nothing more than visits with no real purpose because we haven’t established a need or any kind of relationship. At best, they provide an entry on a call report.

Of all the sales tips my sales manager taught me years ago, this one had the most impact. He explained that prospects have us “on their calendar” when we’ve identified a need, established some level of relationship with them and have created a sense of urgency. An avalanche of appointments that are nothing more than an entry on our calendar have limited value in building our business.

Further reading: Slow Down and Pay Attention During Customer Appointments and Presentations

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Tags: Prospecting, prospects

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