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Education

StreetSmarts SM

SHARING WISDOM
SHARING WISDOM

WITH JEFF FORTNEY WITH JEFF FORTNEY

Take care of yourself first

By Jeff Fortney anything. So, allow me to pause my continued story on
The Strawhecker Group how to succeed in the new normal and discuss how you
can put self-care into action.
e are in the midst of winter, and for many, Step 1: Remain confident when merchants say no
this winter has been trying indeed. As I
write this, parts of the country are facing I believe you must look inward at least twice a year. And
W extraordinary blizzard conditions impact- the goal of this reflection is to examine three key areas
ing transportation and power. Any outside activity has that, if not examined, can result in you damaging your
been all but impossible. sales efforts. It begins with the two letter word no. When
you are meeting with a merchant there are three accept-
Although my area has been hit with intense cold, it's been able responses to your proposal: yes, a firm next step, or
nothing compared to what we experienced a year ago no.
when we suffered the worst storm in many generations.
Extreme cold led to freezes and power outages that af- If selling were easy, we wouldn't need salespeople. And
fected everyone. sales in payments is far from easy. The most common re-
sponse agents hear from merchants is no. And after you
A hard lesson in self-care hear this repeatedly it can negatively affect your efforts.

On a personal note, I slipped on ice in my driveway dur- Recently, I even heard an agent say to a merchant, "You
ing last year's storm, which resulted in a moderate-to-se- don't want to change your payment processing do you?"
vere concussion. I have few memories of the month when This tentative remark was surely the result of the agent
I suffered the concussion or of the following month. The allowing prior no answers to affect their state of mind.
concussion also resulted in post-concussion syndrome.
No is an acceptable answer. Some merchant level sales-
I would wish that condition on no one. It has abated, people understand this but still feel that they failed if
mostly, but I still get headaches occasionally, and blurred they hear no. And that feeling of failure, if allowed to take
vision. It's not fun. I've always believed you should learn hold, dampens confidence, which hinders the next few
from everything you experience—good or bad. But other sales. The most successful agents today don't want to hear
than gaining first-hand knowledge of the effects of falling no, but they know it's better than hearing maybe.
and hitting your head, I didn't think there was anything
of value to learn from this experience. Until the last few I have heard two sayings used to explain why a no an-
months. swer is acceptable. The first is, "No means next." In other
words, a no saves time, and allows you to move on and
When writing about the new normal recently, I realized I invest your time in the next merchant, who may say yes.
did learn one important lesson from the concussion: You The second is, "No means not now." This translates to not
must take care of yourself first if you want to succeed in today. It's not a no. In this instance, the merchants are say-
ing they expect to need your products or services later.
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