How many times have you told somebody, or have been told, to stop “over-thinking” the idea, task or decision at hand? Over-thinking can lead to procrastination, confusion and the dangerous gray area of indecision. I am guilty of it, frequently. But a term we don’t hear nearly as often is “under-thinking.” Has anyone ever told you to stop “under-thinking” the decision at hand? Have you ever said to someone, “hey you are under-thinking”? We know that vision statements are powerful (and very cliché today, simply because they work!), but what about micro-vision or micro-purpose statements on a more frequent basis?
I believe that whether you are meeting someone for a sales call or looking to select your next (or first) career move, we can sometimes under-think the true intention and multiple objectives of the time and energy we are spending.
I know of a very successful business owner who has been meeting with clients for over twenty years. Before every client meeting, he will write out, on a piece of paper, what will come out of this meeting. He knows what the purpose of the meeting is, and the objectives he is looking to accomplish. He says that usually 80% of what he writes down before the meeting comes to fruition. Sure, we can always make agenda’s for meetings, but do you have an “intention statement” that you use as an internal game-plan before each meeting? We could just state “get the job” or “make the sale” but that can be too vague and is too focused on the result versus what will get us to the result.
Try using a micro purpose statement for each client meeting you have in simple bullet points. Use this as your pre-game statement.
- I will meet, get the name of, and have a friendly conversation with the receptionist or assistant
- John and I will spark a comfortable dialogue using commonality of the nominating referrer
- I will learn more about what’s important to John in a few different avenues at this point in his business and life
- I will learn more about John’s current perspective on the service and get relevant data
- I will learn more about the relationship that John currently has with his service provider
- I will learn more about John’s timing and priority level around improving this service
- I will educate John on how others businesses like his, are benefiting from our service
- John and I will agree on a date to have a follow up conversation and make decisions
- John and I will leave five minutes at the end of meeting for networking purposes
- John and I will, at the very least, be professional contacts going forward
Marketing and prospecting can be the hardest part of starting and growing a business. You dump a lot of time and energy into resources that help you get in front of people. We prepare what we might say, or what the meeting might look like, but how often do we state what we want the multiple outcomes of the meetings? Be more intentional in using pre-game plans to write out the smaller outcomes of each interaction which will eventually lead to the results you want.
Author Bio
Eddy Ricci, Jr., is the Author of The Growth Game: A Millennial’s Guide to Professional Development and Founder of The Growth Game, LLC a professional development company. He has been labeled as “the emerging expert in developing Gen Y sales professionals” by the chairman of Publicis Kaplan Thaler and is also noted as “understanding what motivates Gen Y sales teams. He is on my radar and should be on yours” by international speaker and NY Times bestselling author, Erik Qualman. Eddy serves as the director of a unique training and development collaborative platform that services financial planning firms in the northeast where he has arguably worked with more Gen Y financial professionals than anyone in the country over the past four years.www.thegrowthgame.com ; @thegrowthgame (recently created twitter).
“After You Frame Your Diploma, You Must Read Ricci’s The Growth Game!”- Ben Newman, international speaker, Professional Sports and Executive speaker, and best selling author
