Humans excel at many things: innovation, forming relationships, and communication to name a few. One that also comes to mind is procrastination. As a species, we take an almost perverse pleasure in putting off tasks until the “right” time. Waiting until the “right” time allows a certain degree of safety and security – albeit false – that taking action does not. Because of this, most people prefer to wait until the “right” time as it is simply more comfortable to do nothing due to the perception of poor timing.
I have some good news and bad news.
The bad news: The “right” time doesn’t exist. The “right” time is a myth created and perpetuated by people who would rather embrace the comfort of an excuse than push themselves into action that may result in uneasiness or even failure. Excuses are cheap, plentiful, and they provide false relief when people want to avoid actions or decisions.
The good news: The vast majority of your competition has embraced the myth of the “right” time. They are paralyzed to the point of inaction as they wait for the perfect alignment of circumstances that will likely never exist. They simply won’t act on the necessary sales activities that drive business growth – things like prospecting, networking, or finding ways to work with a challenging client.
There is no such thing as a “right” time to engage in sales activities – there is just now or never.
Successful people know that NOW is not only the “right” time, it’s the only time. People who struggle for sales growth always feel the “right” time is some unidentified point in the future.
So, is your “right” time now, or is it never?
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive outsourcing company solely focused on helping small and medium sized-promotional products enterprises responsibly grow their business. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and developing winning RFP responses, and presenting winning promotional products solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.