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Education

StreetSmarts SM

SHARING WISDOM
SHARING WISDOM

WITH JEFF FORTNEY WITH JEFF FORTNEY

Value your selling time by chucking maybes

By Jeff Fortney Don't chase maybes.
Signature Payments Rejections in disguise
hat commodity do we all tend to ignore? Maybes are time eaters. They have been called comfort
Here are some hints. No one knows how calls, dream chasing and wishful thinking calls. Mer-
much we have. It's a finite asset, and when chant maybes rarely sign or buy anything. They don't say
W gone, it's gone. We can't set it aside for no; instead they give you just enough hope to visit again.
a rainy day, nor can we hoard it. You guessed it. The For example, does this sound familiar? It's a first call on
answer is time. a merchant you've identified as a strong candidate. You're
conversing, and the individual seems attentive and in-
It's easy to forget the importance of this asset. We often terested in what you're saying. Then you ask if they have
define it in cliches like, "Time and tide wait for no man" questions, and they reply, "That sounds very interesting.
and "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." Can you leave something for me to read and review? I
But few recognize basic truths about time and its im- need to get back to work."
mense value. We all invest our time whether we know it
or not. We invest time to reinvigorate. We invest time in Thanking the merchant, you hand over your printed flyer
our friends and families. But these investments can't be and say you'll be back Friday. You leave smiling, believing
made if we don't also invest time in our businesses. you have a solid prospect destined to sign on Friday. How-
ever, when you return, your prospect isn't available. You
Two statements are on my desk: "Shut up and listen" And ask for another time and are told Tuesday might work. On
"Stay on the right side of the pay line." The latter reminds Tuesday, you call ahead and are put off until the follow-
me that time at work should be spent on efforts that in- ing Friday. On Friday you show up in person only to find
crease revenue, not on areas that aren't revenue driven. it's the merchant's day off. Delays like this continue week
In essence, we need to do selling activities during selling after week. After a month, you set the prospect aside, and
time. wonder what happened. The first call seemed successful.
The deal was almost done, so you thought. And you in-
The "right side of the payline" involves the time you set vested significant time because you considered it a solid
aside for selling activities. These activities vary by what prospect.
your role is, what you are offering and what helps you
grow your revenues. It isn't 100 percent of your work time, Spot the red flags
as non-selling activities are necessary to support your ef- This is the quintessential example of chasing a maybe. If
forts, and your selling effectiveness wanes if you spend
all your time selling. My research indicates that most you were to do an honest postmortem on the initial call,
you'd see the red flags flapping when the merchant asked
salespeople devote six hours a day to right-side activities
and two hours to activities that don't drive revenue. for a leave-behind to read. Your so-called prospect was
really what I refer to as a suspect.
We all set aside time to build our businesses, which means This type of scenario typically has specific attributes that
increasing merchant counts, volumes and revenues. Even
so, we often let activities that do not drive revenue slip foster an MLS's belief that someone is a strong prospect
when, in fact, they aren't truly interested in the offerings.
into our right-side time. Some may look like sales efforts,
but when examined closely, are more time wasters than One is that the MLS does most of the talking. The second
is that the merchant asks the MLS to leave something be-
revenue drivers. Some can even cost money. The most
egregious of these is the reason for my fifth basic tenet: hind. The third is that the MLS does not establish a spe-
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