How Sharp Is Your Ax?

February is full of observances and holidays. Among others, there’s Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day (replacing and combining the observances of Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday). Speaking of Lincoln’s Birthday, that’s today. If today is your birthday also, happy birthday!

Regardless of whether you observe Lincoln’s birthday or regard it as just any other day, Abraham Lincoln was credited with many famous (and possibly not so famous) sayings and anecdotes, and I’d like to share one with you today.

Abraham Lincoln, who was known as the “railsplitter,” is reported to have said: “If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend 6 hours sharpening the ax.” This simple remark has a great message – particularly for those of us in sales.

I’m a firm believer in proper preparation. In fact, I regard preparation as the first in the triumvirate of the sales process – along with justification and continuation.
Without proper preparation, it’s impossible to be a consistent performer. Regardless of whether you’re involved in building, sales, or marketing, if you haven’t done your homework you will be at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

It might be possible to get by for a while without it, but preparation is essential for understanding your marketplace, competition, customers, and product – and make sure that you are ready for your presentation.

This knowledge does not just come to you, you have to intentionally acquire it through study, education, and research. Take any two salespeople – one who relies on their instincts and native abilities and the other who has taken the time to investigate their marketplace, study their competition, determine what their customers might perceive as both the strengths and weaknesses of their product, develop a strategy for presenting those strengths and overcoming or minimizing those weaknesses, and practice the delivery of their presentation. Which one do you think will be the more consistent performer? Which one do you think would appear to be more professional to the customer?

Proper preparation takes time. It won’t be totally accomplished during normal business hours so you’re going to have to make a special time commitment to do it – but it will be well worth it as you position yourself to be ready to meet your customers and create the sale.

If you relate it back to Lincoln’s remark, investing time now in preparation will make your future sales presentations that much easier and more effective – regardless of their length.