Man, I am hungry as I sit here watching TV!  It is about 9:15pm; in between the plot thickening on Cold Case and CSI, a Taco Bell commercial had just interrupted the mind tingling suspense.  “Hmmmm,” I thought, “a triple-decker beef and cheese taco would be absolutely awesome right now!”  The majestic voice booms in the background of this taco cheesy cholesterol’d tantalizing delight.   “Taco Bell, thinking outside the bun!”  Now that is catchy.

“Thinking outside the bun.”   Very funny.  This reminded me of one of my sales trainings a few years ago when, “Thinking outside the box”, had just caught on.  Now, “thinking outside the box,” seems to be the mantra of every guru out there.  Thinking outside the box is meant to get people thinking creatively, but I think this had gotten “lost in translation.”  Now the slogan seems to mean, “let’s come up with something catchy and sit back and wait for our customers to come tearing our down door.”

There is a lot to be said about creativity, but there are only specific activities that will grow our business.  Creativity does not replace work.  You can be creative in the basics, but let’s not get too fancy lest we forget what our purpose is… to build our businesses.  Let’s get back to the basics.  Let’s start “Thinking inside the box” again, and our business will blast off.  Will you count down with me?    “4… 3…. 2….. 1……”

There are only 4 activities we can do with a prospect:
1.Find them – cold call / prospect
2.Call them – make an appointment
3.Talk to them – make a presentation to ask for the order
4.Follow up with them – to get them eventually started as a new customer

There are only 3 activities we can do with a customer:
1.Retain them– keep their business
2.Grow them– increase the number of solutions you offer the customer
3.Gain them– pick up new customers

There are only 2 activities we can do after an order:
1.Follow through – keep your word on the terms and specifics of the order
2.Follow up – call back to see how satisfied your customer is and ask for another order

There is only 1 activity you can do if our business is suffering:
1.Get more customers

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About the author:
Christopher Morrissette has been a top sales producer, with a Fortune 500 Sales Company, for 6 years of his 7 year career; regionally and nationally. Christopher has been crushing sales targets repeatedly before launching his first company, Easy Giving, and now his new company For Free and For Fun. Now, Chris teaches sales people of all industries how to ask for the appointment and get it!  You gotta’ love this stuff!

To order the book Chris wrote called ‘For Free and For Fun – How to Ask for the Appointment and Get It,’ get yourself over to http://tinyurl.com/d6d3ky (AMAZON)

For a FREE Expansion CD set of the book For Free and For Fun – How to Ask for the Appointment and Get It please visit www.forfreeandforfun.com.

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