What Everyone Wants And How You Can Get It

Everyone wants to win their dream client’s business, but very few want to pick up the phone and call them. Even fewer want to nurture the relationship, professionally persisting over time. Very few will do what is necessary to move their dream clients from the “dream” list to the “client” list.

Everyone wants to beat their competitors and win their prospective client’s business, but no one wants to ask for all the commitments that would give them a competitive advantage. They want to win without doing the hard work of creating colossal, differentiated value. Only the true professionals embrace the “ask” and “control the process,” doing what it takes to serve their clients and to win.

Everyone wants to win a deal without having to negotiate with their prospective client and without having to discount their offering. They’d rather negotiate with their own company to reduce their pricing. Only a small fraction take the time, or put forth the effort, to learn to justify the delta between their price and their competitor’s.

Everyone wants to win deals faster, but almost none want to slow down to speed things up. The mark of the professional is that they increase the quality of what they do by being meticulous and precise in everything they do, wasting not a single motion, and in doing so, compress time.

Everyone wants to be a trusted advisor, but few want to do the work of building trust by having a presence, making and keeping commitments, and demonstrating that they care. Far fewer want to do the reading, listening, and studying required to have the advice necessary to be any sort of advisor. Those who build trust and build their business acumen distinguish themselves, and having done so, occupy the position of trusted advisor.

Everyone wants what they want, but few are willing to pay the price to get it.

Some want someone else to do the work and give them what they want, feeling a sense of entitlement. They become bitter. Many wait, longing for luck to intervene on their behalf and deliver a miracle. They become disappointed. Still more take half measures, stopping short of what is necessary to produce the result they want. They become frustrated.

Those who get what they want do the work.