50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habit 27 – Fifteen Minutes Early

July 28, 2016 Selling Comments Off on 50 Habits of Top Performing Sales People Habit 27 – Fifteen Minutes Early

Continuing with the Six Interpersonal Skills let’s look at Habit 27, being “on time”.

Habit 27: Fifteen Minutes Early.

Last month’s newsletter talked about Appearance and Demeanor. This month, let’s focus on being “on time” for appointments.

Arrive at appointments 15 minutes early. Many people refer to this as Lombardi time and it’s a great idea developed by a great man and we’ve adopted this practice in our professional life. We can’t tell you the number of times that being 15 minutes early has been a big advantage to us.

The driving force behind this habit is courtesy. As I observe business today, particularly retail business, businesses seem to be in business for the convenience of the business, not their customers. Being 15 minutes early is the courteous thing to do. It demonstrates that you are respectful of your customer/prospect’s time. They need not be concerned about wasting their time as they know not only will you be on time for an appointment, you will be early. The whole point is it’s about the customer, not you.

Being 15 minutes early allows you time to review what it is you’re going to present or discuss and allows you the ability to update or modify if necessary. It also gives you an opportunity to look around the lobby and see what you can learn. It’s amazing what you will be able to learn if you observe. The culture of business is all over the lobby and the receptionist is there to tell you things you may need to know, if you just ask.

The culture is there all you have to do is pay attention to it.

• Is the lobby clean and bright?
• Does the receptionist treat you with respect and with a smile?
• Are there brochures that describe the company and it’s products or services and what can you learn from them?
• Are representatives from your competition in the lobby, what can you learn from them?
• Are there people in the lobby that you know, they may be employees of the customer/prospect company or other vendors, what can you learn?

Top Performers take advantage of all the above and they are 15 minutes early!

“A Habit” is not work, but just a thing that is done every day and establishing the standard of being “on time” meaning you are 15 minutes early is critical to your success in sales and can easily become a Habit.