Page 52 - GS131002

EducationContinued

• What should I expect in return for the commitment? • What happens if this effort fails? No one wants to think
Before you make any changes to your sales process, about failure, and a great salesperson rarely considers
decide upon a reasonable return for your commitment. this when selling. However, it's impossible to truly
It must be greater than what you are getting now in think through "what if" without considering the
order to justify your decision. negative. Nothing is ever guaranteed to be successful.
You must decide if the commitment's potential for
• How long will it take to see results? You are not only success outweighs its possibility for failure.
making a monetary commitment, you are also making
a time commitment. This question is critical because Simply put, it truly is decision time. Even though you are
you must be realistic in your expectations. If your focused on making the current year successful, taking
expectations are too aggressive, you will become extra time now to plan for the following year will help you
frustrated with what others would consider to be an hit the ground running in January and get out ahead of
acceptable time frame. Conversely, if you give yourself your competition.
more time than what is truly needed, you might miss
other opportunities.
Jeff Fortney is Vice President, ISO Channel Management with
Clearent LLC. He has more than 17 years' experience in the
• How will this impact my efforts in other markets,
and can I afford it? Since your time will be spent payments industry. Contact him at jeff@clearent.com or 972-618-
concentrating on one market segment, it will likely 7340. To learn about how Clearent can help you grow faster and
have a financial impact on the rest of your business. go further, visit www.clearent.com.
Depending on how successful you are, this may not
matter because the new segment could be what drives
your growth.