Sometime ago I had the honer of meeting Bob Burg at one of his seminars on networking and some of his teachings from The Go Giver.  I must confess, I abandoned the seminar early in hopes to put out a few fires that were burning in the office, not literally.  Thanks to my smart phone I was kept in the loop throughout the mornings activities.  I did take an initiative and purchased ALL of Bob's Cd's and materials and have really enjoyed his teachings.

                                                

I have always believed that follow through is not only one of the most important aspects of sales but also in life.  We can all look back and think of people we know that may seam to be all talk and no action.  Could you imagine if people thought that about you?  Would you realize if they did?  Would you believe someone if they pointed out that you were?  I would venture to say that if you have been called on it, your first reaction was to be defensive.  Talking the talk is the easy part.

I pride myself on always doing what I say I'm going to do.  I may not get it completed right away, but eventually it will get done.

I took a lesson from a car salesperson I dealt with before I purchased my current vehicle.  With out boring you with the details I will quickly glaze over the story. ... I told the salesperson that I was buying a car that week (this was on a Sunday).  He said he would contact me regarding a specific vehicle the next day.  I purchased a brand new car from a different dealer down the street on Wednesday.  This sales person called me on Thursday, asking how I was doing. ... I returned his voice mail with a lovely message of my own and requested that it be forwarded/shared with the owner of the dealership.  I'm sure that message was deleted right away.  If this salesperson would have simply followed up like they said they would, a nice commission would have been in their near future.  Sales is simply about follow through and doing what you said you'd do, when you said you'd do it.

One short teaching I really enjoyed from Bob's father, Mike 'the miracle man' Burg, was his mention of the importance of follow through.  I particularly liked how he rolled these three disciplinary words into the principles of follow up.

Mike Burg, Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge defined:

Wisdom simply defined is a "Natural ability".  Wisdom is the inherent skill and ability to be able to greatly excel at any particular task.  With out any training, research or previous cognitive processes, wisdom, is the ability just to do and be successful at something. 

Understanding is the "Effective functioning after being taught to do something".  You may not be a natural but you most certainly can be affective with the correct training.  So do your homework and really focus on what you are trying to achieve and gain an understanding in order to progress.

Knowledge is the "Action and the practice, using wisdom and/or understanding".  Unless you put what you've learned to use, it really won't do you much good.  Get up and put it to play. ... follow through.

Have a great week!