Being Lazy and Sharpening the Saw...
I hosted a webcast on Smarter Event Placment this morning for 25 people. It was an opportunity for me to shine and I blew it.
Why? Because, for a moment, I got lazy.
I have two PC's (well, I have more, but let's focus on the 2 I use for my work). One of them has Map Point 2006 [required for my demo] and one of them had been upgraded to the new (and pretty cool) version of Live Meeting.
So, I booted up the one with MapPoint (a great product, but a lousy home page--show some visuals, man!) about 8 minutes before the call and, of course, I had to install the Active X control and Java so I could get the new Live Meeting console.
Needless to say, it took longer (much longer) than 8 minutes.
So, I'm on the call, fumbling around, and the Live Meeting demo isn't happening. A total flop.
Embarrassing. Very.
I had figured, "hey, I've done a ton of demos, I'll be fine." When in reality, I should have [last night] double checked that everything was up and running.
I didn't.
Shame on me. Lesson learned.
The key here is, as Stephen Covey points out in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , that no matter how old or experienced you are, you need to go back and "Sharpen the Saw." Don't forget the basics and continue to practice them.
For salespeople, this means training inSolution Selling.
In the parlance, 20% of salesfolks are "eagles." You know, the type that walk into a room and just close the deal.
The rest of us? Journeymen ( er, Journeypeople ) and we need to practice the fundamentals.
For those of you in the Greater DC area, you have a chance for a Solution Selling class on Sept. 25th (two days in total).
Learn from my mistake.