What Do You Do When Business Takes You By Surprise

Uncategorized Feb 01, 2021

Business Retreat

A while back, I was on a business retreat with a group of friends and clients, and they're so much fun. But let me tell you about the one time that we had the biggest surprise ever.

We were in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I had planned this little spa getaway for the clients. We worked hard during the day on business strategy and sales skills and went to the spa after working all day.

When we get there, there's no electricity inside the building. However, the hot tubs were still working, and we could hang out there until the lights come back on.

Even though we aren't prepared for that jacuzzi, we do have our swimsuits, so we get in. As it starts to get warm inside, women began to come out and have a towel or a robe. And then as they disrobe, they don't have on swimming suits like we do. Our group looks at each other with our swimming suits on and say, "What's going on?" All these women are naked, and they're getting in this jacuzzi with us.

Well, it turns out this is a clothing-optional type of environment. And it's like, well, okay, it's all women. No big deal, right? Well, after a while, the jacuzzi bubbles stop. So now there are no bubbles, and there are naked women in the jacuzzi with us.

We got over it and had a great conversation. And at the end of the conversation, I had a couple of the women asking me for a business card.

The Lesson

Why do I share this story? I share this story because my question is, what do you do when business takes you by surprise?

When you had no expectation of what was about to happen, yet here you are in the jacuzzi with naked women. What are you supposed to do?

I want you to think about that time when you had a sales conversation with someone that you were just positive they were going to say yes. But then they said no.

The first thing I want you to do is to be curious, to ask why? Is it something that your not providing that they're looking for? Is it something someone else is providing that they're more inclined to say yes to? You need to understand what you need to do; that could have made that no a yes.

Then look at the objection you're getting every time you have a call. Is that person that you're talking to is saying, "I don't have the money. I need to talk to my business partners. Not right now, maybe later in the year," or, "Send me a proposal, and I'll get back to you." We've all heard all of the excuses.

When you hear objections, write them down. Then, figure out what you could say to overcome this objection; instead of just saying, "Oh. Well, okay, I'll get back to you later." Which is what we generally do, because when you don't know what to do, what do you do? Nothing.

Be prepared for any particular possible objections, write them down, tape them on the side of your computer screen, on your wall, wherever you can see them.

Stop getting disappointed with the surprises that happen in your business; instead, get data. Begin to extract lessons from things that come against you in your industry to prepare better to serve the people you're going to encounter later.

Don't be afraid of the naked ladies. Just figure out what you might say or do to be prepared later, so you are better positioned to get more yeses and fewer objections.

If you're trying to figure out, well, how do I overcome these objections? What should I be saying? How do I prepare? Let's talk. You can schedule a complimentary get acquainted sales assessment conversation with me.