--- title: Unless You Have a Time Machine | The Sales Blog description: You can’t go back six months and do the prospecting work that you would have needed to do in order to have the opportunities you need in this quarter. image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Untitled-design-Jun-11-2021-02-24-38-75-PM.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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Prospecting work [doesn’t line up neatly](http://thesalesblog.com/2010/07/08/effort-doesn%e2%80%99t-line-up-neatly-with-results/) with the results it produces, and there is still [no way to cram](http://thesalesblog.com/2017/07/02/cramming-prospecting-episode-152/) to make up what you missed down the road. You can’t nurture your dream client after you find out that they became dissatisfied with your competitor, the one they worked with for years, and the one you thought they would never leave. Because you weren’t known, you weren’t invited to compete for the business. In fact, no one even thought of you. While it was happening, you knew that you should not have presented your solution without having collaborated with your prospective client, without having [built consensus](http://thesalesblog.com/2017/03/03/who-and-what-you-need-to-understand-to-build-consensus/), and without knowing what you needed to present to get a “yes.” Instead, you got a no. You can’t go back and do that work, even though you now know they should have been more afraid of losing than you were of having a difficult conversation about doing the right thing. That is something you will have to do if you ever want to be a trusted advisor. A lot of mistakes you make in sales are avoidable. You will make errors, some forced, and many more unforced. It’s all part of the game. [No one is undefeated](http://thesalesblog.com/2017/02/26/flexible-approach-selling/) in sales, and the best salespeople can share with you all the things they could have, should have, and would have done differently. They likely learned these things the same way you did. Some of them, if they are being honest, were the smartest person in the room when they were young, and didn’t believe [the principles of sales ](http://thesalesblog.com/2010/06/13/the-iron-laws-of-sales/)applied to them. Unless you really, really like a mistake, there is no reason to repeat it. If you don’t like the outcomes that follow mistakes, then you need to correct them so that you produce a different outcome in the future. ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2017](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2017) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on September 6, 2017 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2021-09-17T1:41:04 PM", "datePublished" : "2017-09-06 08:00:37", "description" : "You can’t go back six months and do the prospecting work that you would have needed to do in order to have the opportunities you need in this quarter.", "headline" : "Unless You Have a Time Machine", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 16, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/Image/favicon.ico", "width" : 16 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/unless-you-have-a-time-machine", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "name" : "Unless You Have a Time Machine", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 24, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/TSB/images/TSB%20Logo%20Dark.svg", "width" : 228 }, "name" : "The Sales Blog" } } ```