\nG.A. Bartick remembers the day he called on a large wire house in San Francisco. He’d just completed a project for another brokerage firm that went well and, feeling confident he knew the industry, he skipped his pre-call research. Big mistake. During his meeting with a senior VP, the executive often referred to the Wilshire 5000. Thinking this was company jargon, Bartick, about 10 minutes into the meeting, interrupted the VP and said, “I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with the Wilshire 5000.” The VP, recalls Bartick, “stood up and said, ‘You obviously aren’t ready to be meeting with me and I’m pretty busy so why don’t we end this meeting now.'” Since then, Bartick has never ignored his pre-call research.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I remember ignoring pre-call research back in the day, but you could get away with it back then. Today – not a chance.<\/p>\n
The article goes on to share 5 other preparedness factors that should be automatic for any salesperson so I recommend you read the entire thing. And just to whet your whistle, here is one of the better tips I have read lately:<\/p>\n
\nIron your briefcase. <\/strong>More than once, Bartick has gone to his briefcase during a sales meeting only to discover that the form he needs isn’t there. Now, he does what he calls “ironing his briefcase” every night before he goes to bed. He reviews his schedule for the next day, empties out the contents of his briefcase and files everything he doesn’t need. Then he collects all the materials for the next day and places them in the briefcase. “Ironing,” he says, “helps take the wrinkles out of tomorrow by preparing today.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have been in sales since 1992 and have seen the marketplace change in drastic ways. Today, we are in the midst of the information age where knowledge is king. Preparedness is a necessity for successful selling. In all honesty, this trait has never been one of my strengths. However, I have made changes to my approach (in order to survive!). The reason is found in this SellingPower.com article – Pre-Call Planning: It’s More than Just Research. The author shares a frightening sales story: G.A. Bartick remembers the day he called on a large wire house in San Francisco. He’d just completed a project for another brokerage firm that went… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[1114,267,211,142],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-techniques","tag-pre-call-plan","tag-sales-approach","tag-sales-skill","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-tj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2020,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/preparation-vs-execution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":0},"title":"Preparation vs. Execution","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"SellingPower.com\u2019s article - Help for Your Pre-Call Prep \u2013 makes a bold statement in the opening sentence: When you get right down to it, sales are won or lost on preparation. I would argue that sales are won or lost on execution.\u00a0 Give me a salesperson who executes flawlessly any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2307,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/04\/product-vs-service-sales\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":1},"title":"Product vs. Service Sales","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been seeing this distinction first-hand among salespeople I have encountered of late.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure there is a clear-cut sales ability towards product vs. service sales, but I do know that certain salespeople have skills and aptitudes that support one over the other.\u00a0 In that vein I give you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1126,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/08\/a-sales-managers-biggest-responsibility\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":2},"title":"A Sales Manager’s Biggest Responsibility","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"SellingPower.com offers a terrific how-to article regarding the sales manager's role in developing his or her team. How to Ace Your Most Important Responsibility is a must read for any sales manager. The article categorizes the sales manager's approach into 5 straight-forward stages: 1. Set the schedule 2. Pre-call planning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2230,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/01\/interview-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":3},"title":"Interview Myths","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This article from Yahoo\u2019s Hot Jobs contains 5 hiring myths designed to help candidates perform better in an interview.\u00a0 Myth #1 is excellent for the hiring manager: Myth #1: Be prepared with a list of questions to ask at the close of the interview. There is some truth in this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2054,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/06\/adjusting-a-sales-process-for-this-recession\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":4},"title":"Adjusting A Sales Process For This Recession","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The thought of retiring is going to be a novel idea in the near future, at least according to a new abcnews.com poll.\u00a0 In a recent survey of Americans (my bold): Half the population in this new ABC News poll thinks both job security and retirement prospects in the years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2096,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/09\/the-trial-hire\/","url_meta":{"origin":1817,"position":5},"title":"The Trial Hire","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m back from a needed break in this sour economy.\u00a0 Everywhere I go I ask people about their business.\u00a0 It is fairly consistent \u2013 something from \u201ccould be better\u201d to \u201creally down.\u201d That economic context allows some freedom for hiring companies to incorporate what I call contextual hiring techniques.\u00a0 These\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessing"","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}