Sales Blog - Take a Break

By Steven J. Schmidt (8/21/08)

Sometimes when you're out in the field by yourself, you need to take a break. Sometimes it may get boring; other times you may lack energy; or perhaps you're not getting anywhere with the customers. The latter, of course, may cause low confidence, which the customer will see, and you won't be able to make a sale because your head isn't into it.

A number of years ago, I was working residentially, selling window cleaning, power washing and gutter treatment jobs. It was a slow day, so after about an hour and a half, I received a $500 lead. After obtaining this lead, I started to feel my energy fading, and it began to show when I was talking to customers. Normally, I would hang in there if a customer gave me an objection. However, on this day, I was walking away from the door when the customer would simply say, "I"m not interested."

I decided to go back to my car to get a drink of water, and eat a plum and granola bar. After I finished my snack, I didn't feel any better, so I decided to leave and go to another area. While I was looking for promising territory, I decided to go to the mall and eat some real food. I ate lunch and drove to another area, but my energy wasn't there and my head just wasn't "in the game."

The scorching sun fatigued me, and the 90-degree humid weather wasn't doing me any favors. I parked my car, turned my air conditioner up, reclined my chair all the way back, took off my glasses, and took a 10-15 minute nap.

Once I woke up, I thought to myself, "I'm not going home until I get at least one sale and some solid leads." Feeling a spark of motivation, I got out of my car and went to the first few doors. I kept my pitch calm so it seemed like if they didn't bite, it wouldn't bother me at all.

At the third door, I began, "I'm in the neighborhood doing free estimates for power washing for sidings, and we're doing some gutter cleaning." The guy replied, "The gutters I don't need, but maybe some power washing, because I haven't had it done in about two years because my friend broke my power washing machine."

I responded, "Ouch, that can't be good. Oh, by the way, I see you have a deck, we power wash decks as well." He said, "Really? Now that I can definitely use."

At that point, I knew I had something, so we walked around the house together, and he told me exactly what he wanted us to do, which became a $500 deal. He invited me in and we talked for about 15 minutes, just having a good time.

I stayed out in the field for another hour and a half, and ended up getting three solid leads that eventually all turned into sales.

Sometimes, if things aren't going your way, the best thing to do is to just take a break. It lets your mind re-group, and allows you to re-focus on getting sales and being positive. Even when your back is against the wall and you need to make sales, you must take a break if you don't have any energy! There's no point in waste your energy if you have none; all you're doing at that point is just wasting your time.



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