Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
I was driving to the airport at 4:30 AM when I passed a tandem tractor trailer - 2 18 wheelers hitched together. You must have tremendous confidence when you do that - at highway speed - with the huge, long truck on one side, and nothing but guard rail on the other side. While it's helpful to have confidence in your own ability to hold your vehicle steady, it's even more important to trust that the truck driver won't veer into your lane and run you off the road! What happens if you trust too much, take the truck driver for granted, and don't pay attention to every move that driver makes?
Sales calls are like that. You can have all the confidence in the world in your own ability but if you trust the prospect too much, if you have too much faith that they won't run you off the road, if you take their intentions for granted, they might run you right off the road without you even noticing!
But that never happened to you or your salespeople.
Have a healthy degree of skepticism, push back and challenge everything you hear, especially when it's what you wanted to hear, to avoid a case of happy ears.
