Timing
It’s better to be five minutes early than one minute late. That’s what we teach on the company training course and as a company trainer I like to practise what I preach – but 35 minutes early??
Well, that’s when I pulled into the car park of the furniture showroom where I was due to meet my prospect in the coffee shop – and I knew I could not drink coffee for 35 minutes by myself. So I looked around for something profitable to do – and that was when I noticed a particular peculiarity: As far as the eye could see (and it can see a long way in an out-of-town retail park in East Anglia) there seemed to be nothing but other furniture showrooms… and leather sofa retailers… and bed emporia… and flooring warehouses … and bathroom specialists…
The place was a phenomenon. Ah well, it didn’t really matter. I stepped into the nearest one which happened to sell marble, granite, ceramic floor tiles, solid and laminate wood flooring… you get the picture.
“Hi, can you help me,” I said brightly to the young man behind the desk. “I’m looking for top salespeople who might like to increase their income and I wondered if you might be one of those.”
He looked interested but cagey – for which you can hardly blame him – and that led to a conversation. I forget exactly how it went but I do remember the first significant point he made: “It’s only my first week here.”
“Really? Did you work in another flooring store before or is this something of a change for you?”
He said: “I had my own flooring business but I lost it. I split up with my partner. We ran the business between us and she kept it.”
You can guess where this led us: The cost of setting up a new business… the ignominy of working for someone else for a weekly wage… how long it would take him to save up the price of starting up again for himself.
I slipped a piggy card across the counter: “Take a look at that. Which would you say is your Number One priority”.
He looked down the list and answered without hesitation: “Time with the family.” His family was now his little girl. He pulled out his phone with her picture.
Casually, as if the thought had just occurred, I mused: “You know I have something that you might like to take a look at. If I could show you a way to start your own business again – not for thousands of pounds but for just £199.75 – which would pay you enough to give you the time with your daughter that she needs with here Daddy at the same time as building up an inheritance for her future, would that be something that you might be interested in exploring further?
And the next moment we had a piece of paper out on the counter and he was poring over my diagrams of how the money worked.
Now, I have no idea whether he will watch the DVD and check out the website – or, indeed whether he really will come to our Open Evening next week and bring all his friends.
But what I do know is that sometimes my timing is perfect!