Clumsy stuff and… Big ideas and…

Clumsy stuff and … Rambling prospects

So you’re frustrated by a chatterbox who just won’t stop talking. You’ve tried a couple of times to insert a word or two and to your consternation he keeps prattling on! At this stage the point you’re trying to make will be lost if you can’t find a way soon to gain a pause so you can continue.

Of course you could just speak over him or raise your voice enough to force his verbal surrender. But either of those will likely result in a negative situation. And if he’s a customer or a prospect that’s certainly not what the doctor ordered.

So what to do? Here’s one solution: Create a distraction. And a good one is to “accidentally” drop something right in front of him – something that’s big enough get his attention. Then delay picking it up. If you’re lucky, he does you that favor and you have that pause. If he doesn’t your slight delay picking it up and your apology for being so clumsy might do the trick.

Then deal with the situation exactly as you would when that customer gets an aggravating distraction in the middle of your pitch. With luck you broken his stream of consciousness diatribe and can move on with “as I was saying” and resume as thought the long ramble never happened.

Big ideas and… bigger plans

Whenever we think about growing our business, it’s natural to plan big. But is that the best strategy to get there? Targeting on the sale of that growing local chain, or that large resort is always a good idea. But depending on one of those home runs to happen as our baseline for growth probably isn’t the optimal way to go.

As the baseball season nears its Fall conclusion, we probably ought to remember the admonition about hitting singles and running the bases versus reaching for the bleachers.

Likewise we’d be smart to base our growth strategy on achieving small wins – to include selling ancillary products to all our customers or closing that laundry department in the nursing care center where we already have the kitchen business.

If we have those smaller growth components working for us, we’re still able to swing for the fences. But the key is to use those lower percentage big ideas as part of our growth plan.

If we’re successful that’s the icing on the cake. But in case we’re not – or just take longer to achieve them, we’re still growing.