We are all very busy these days with customer appointments, prospecting, emails, phone calls, social media, CRM’s, etc, etc.

Because of all these “distractions” it is easy to lose sight of your focus and whether your methods are successful because you are merely trying to keep up with it all.

When you have finished with that last meeting or presentation with a client, you are most likely anxious to move on to the next appointment, phone call, email or other item that was put aside while the meeting occurred.

STOP

Take about 10 minutes. Breathe and reflect.

Spend some time doing a Self Assessment of that recent exchange. Take down some notes while that meeting is fresh in your mind to be sure you remember key elements of the interaction with your customer.

• What did you present or discuss that worked well?
• What did you present that did not work well?
• When did your customer’s body language or tone of voice tell you they had lost interest or misunderstood what you were saying and did you notice at the time?
• When did your client give you signs that they were excited, ready to move forward or completely engaged in the discussion? Did you take advantage of these moments?

We are often so busy trying to get to the next thing that we frequently do not stop to evaluate our last meeting. As a result, it is easy to keep repeating methods that are not very effective or engaging. Conversely, we may have overlooked parts that were very successful in garnering your clients’ interest and these are the practices that should be leveraged or focused on in future meetings.

Also in that meeting, did you schedule the next step with your client such as the next phone discussion or face to face meeting? If you have not, make a practice of doing this so you are not chasing your client via phone or email.

With a self assessment, you will continue to evolve as a salesperson to tailor your presentation to be effective and you will improve your closing ratio and stop wasting your time on ineffective processes.