It's not my fault

“Definitely not our fault.”

How many times have we heard that?

 “Not my fault they did not buy from us.” “Not my fault that excellent candidate did not start with us.” “Not my fault that prospect won’t see what’s good for him...”

On the other hand I also hear “I did a great sale yesterday.” “We did a great job presenting our company to our next sales superstar” “I got them to see the value of what we do...”

So if the latter scenarios are “my fault”, why aren’t the former, equally so? In fact, even more so? The prospect might have come to the conclusion to buy without our intervention so the glory is really in not the result but how we got there.

We have to take responsibility for our results. That means knowing what we did right and, almost more importantly, what we did wrong.

For example, that candidate; did we check what they were prepared to do to work with us? Did we understand their motivation for joining? Did we role play what would happen when they were offered a better package to stay at their current job or another opportunity came along last minute?

That prospect that would not see what was good for him, had we found enough emotional reason to do business with us? Did we get commitment before we attempted to solve his problem with our excellent solution?

Are we having the right conversations with the right people in the right quantity?

My mentor asked me recently just this question. I was surprised that I had difficulty in pinpointing the answer.

Then I realised why; I used to fill in regular Debrief sheets after every significant interaction with a prospect or client and for some reason I stopped doing that. The sheet had on it exactly what you would expect- evidence of Bonding & Rapport, what was the Up Front Contract, what Pain (all the pain questions), Budget, Decision, Fulfillment, Post Sell.

 I found an excuse for not having used it- too restrictive and hard to use. So I have changed it. I think it’s beautiful now. No excuse. After all, it is my fault.

If you would like a copy of the Debrief sheet contact me on 07866 518848

If you would like to come to a seminar or a workshop here is the link