Detector Shields ON! - With your time at a premium, it's important to remember there is a certain amount of truth to every line of bull, and a certain amount of bull to every truth. Hopefully, you are not dealing with total liars, so we'll focus on the "truth" people tell you. Unintentionally, what people tell us is colored with their perspective, misunderstandings, personality, pride, ambition, and fear. Intentionally, they twist, gloss over, and flat out lie to protect turf, save face, and bias outcomes. Your job as the sales exec is to filter out all the pieces that aren't real. Our piker buddies, hate this filtering responsibility. Filtering means that you might uncover a situation that kills a deal. Killing deals thins out a pipeline and puts pressure on the folks on the performance bubble.

But you are not a piker. Hopefully, you are aware of limited company resources and spend them as though they were your own. You don't jump on a plane to look busy and you don't want to spend a single minute on a deal that isn't going to produce. So, as you review the information a propect shares with you, take some time to be systematic in your evaluation. That's right, abandon high-level gut feelings, and actually write down the information elements that are critical. Think through the impact each item can have on the deal, prioritize them, then validate them. Think of how many times you've been told by a suspect that they ARE the ultimate decision-maker, only unmask them at the end of the selling cycle as Leon the Peon - Information Gatherer #1? That's the simple example. You will have many factors in every deal that can have a material impact on the outcome. Don't make the mistake of assuming everything you are getting is the complete truth. VASLIDATE, VALIDATE, VALIDATE!

Separating Yourself from the Pack: As we talk about quite a bit in this newsletter, you have got to be continually sharpening your skills and finding resources that add to your tool kit. Books, traning DVDs, and classes not only help you refine your thinking, they are generally positive and are good motivators. In one such DVD set I have been reviewing, the speaker sited a study that I found very appropriate for this section of Pack Talk. The study found that the one quality that consistently separated sales executives that earned $250k or more from those that earned less was this: $250k earners do not waste time massaging good ideas. They hear of, or dream up, a good idea and they IMMEDIATELY put it into practice. As they say, no time like the present.