In 1998, I was scheduled to deliver a complex demo for a prospective client in Tampa. I brought one of our application engineers to help if it got too technical. The demo was great, and we were done before lunch. Since Tampa was a couple hours from our office in Orlando, I thought it would be a good use of our time to do some cold calling. My AE was surprised: “Really, you’re just going to stop by random places?” I answered affirmatively and then made the comment: “You never know.”
We made about eight or ten calls, and actually scheduled a demo at one of the sites for the following week. My AE thought it was such a great use of time and bragged about it for months. In every brainstorming meeting our company had, he would say things like: “We need to spend more time in the field like that time Chris and I were in Tampa. He just walked into places and took the attitude of ‘you never know’.” He bragged about me like I was paying him. You know what? It was a good use of our time, but that was 1998.
Boy, how times have changed. In today’s selling environment, the three words that slowly kill seasoned sales professionals are “you never know”. As a strong performer, you should know. Although staying in the field and randomly making calls was a good use of time in 1998, it’s a waste in 2019. Today, we have access to limitless tools and resources that can help us know. We should know the types of prospects that are ideal for us. We should know where they are and who to contact. We should know whether it makes sense to pull off the interstate to make some call in an industrial park. In 2019, “you never know” is not an admirable statement to make. It may appear that way to the old-school guy that’s still sending post card mailers, but the activity that follows those three words is usually a waste of time.
So, if you find yourself about to invest time and effort in an activity because of your raw enthusiasm and competitive nature, and happen to think or state these three words, then you need to stop. Remember, as a sales professional in 2019, you should know.
