Lack of time

It never ceases to amaze me how the default mode in some sales forces (especially the larger ones) is to make loads of mediocre pitches rather than a few exceptional ones.

The reason for this that I’m hearing most often is – ironically – “lack of time”. After all, there’s a lot of pitches to make, and a lot of daily business to cut through: proposals, emails, meetings, more emails, Slack, another meeting, another proposal … you get the idea. So, there’s just no time left to push a pitch from ok to great.

Yet, the actual problem is that “lack of time” easily becomes “waste of time” when you settle with mediocrity.

In the short run, it may not make much difference whether you put in a little effort often and then spread your efforts wide because you know that you’ll win only a couple of those. Or whether you put in so much effort on a few select occasions that you win almost every one of them.

But in the long run, it makes a huge difference. Because the former businesses will still hustle their way through occasion after occasion while the latter’s job gets easier with every deal they make.