Strategists: Todays Kudos & Encouragement (Monday 8-24-15)

Good Morning Strategists,

So I was reading “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu this weekend. It’s a fun read believe it or not. It’s not so much about fighting and beating people up, as it is about strategy and planning. One cool point I read about says,

“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles;

if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one;

if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” - Sun Tzu

That, of course, got me thinking about Sales and the Empire, more specifically steps 2 & 3. Again, I contend that more than 50% of our sales happens during steps 1, 2 & 3. I simply changed the word enemies to customers and the word battles to appointments – then I re-read the quote again. (Re-read it yourself now) Did you see what I saw? This 2500 year old strategy applies today just as it did then. Know our customers!! So how do we do that? It’s not like we can research their life and their wants/needs before we get there, so we have to ask questions. Let me say that again, We HAVE to ASK questions. 

This is where it gets personal, where we become their flooring consultant – the professional they are about to give thousands of dollars to.  People should not buy anything from people that don’t care. Of course, this might be my own personal battle, but if I go somewhere to buy something and the salesperson is a chump, I’ll simply go somewhere else. I might even search out the manager and mention they lost business because of that person.  We must expect the best from ourselves if we are to expect the business of others. That is why A.C.E (Acceptable Customer Experience) is SO IMPORTANT. We have hooked our wagon to the Empire, there is a reason Empire is the largest, and YES, the BEST. We must pursue our own ACE (achieving contractor excellence) every day in every way.

Dan Thompson

Floors By Tomorrow

Auth Rep of Empire Today

Sales Trainer

720-371-2000

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