Lessons from a bird brain...

Living in Wisconsin, one of the best times of the year is spring. Spring represents new beginnings, rebirth and leaving the ugly days of winter behind.

During my morning walk, I noticed a bird had built a home under our second-level deck. What I found most interesting is that there were no inhabitants of this newly constructed abode. With no technology and a minimalist approach, this bird had created a perfect home for the coming eggs. In other words, the bird, not needing this space now, was preparing for the future.

I wondered. Are we as smart as a bird when it comes to preparing for the future? This can take many turns of course, personally and professionally, but we'll focus on the professional here.

Whether it's an impending storm coming in or life changes that happen, how you prepare for them can ultimately determine how you will, in the case of weather, survive, and in the case of personal changes, it can determine how successfully you navigate the change.

Are you prepared? Preparation requires thinking and planning and assembling the necessary resources to deploy when the situation calls for them. One major difference between top performers and moderate performers in sales is the way they prepare to do their jobs. We have developed a tool called the Pre-Meeting Planner. It's 17 questions you can ask before approaching a client or having a meeting to ensure you are adequately prepared. I'll share three of the questions here.

At what stage in the process (7-steps) am I with this prospect/client? Have I given the customer a pre-meeting assignment or agenda? If this meeting is to be successful, what will need to happen? The goal of the tool is not that you be able to answer all 17 questions before each interaction, but that you at least ask a few. Doing so will put you in the top 8% of sellers in terms of preparation.

If you'd like the tool, just email me at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com, I'm happy to send it. By the way, the number one complaint of buyers in survey after survey regarding salespeople is lack of preparation. With this tool you can check off that objection.

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can all so connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.