Basically, never put a lot of effort into improving something you're truly bad at, because the payout on the little bit of improvement is no where near the payout on the improvement of something you're already good at.

I'm creative. So when faced with follow-up challenges, I create or find inventive solutions to either eliminate the need to follow up at all, or to automate as much of the follow-up as possible.

Take connecting people, for example. I love to network and I love to add value to the lives of the people I meet by connecting them to other people I know. I always shoot for win-win connections, which are sometimes hard to find.

So when networking, I use my creative interview skills to learn what I must know to make win-win connections.

Of course, that means follow-up -- making the connections I promised to make.

One thing I changed was this. When I get to any networking event I scan the crowd for people I already know and talk with them first if possible. This moves them top-of-mind. Then, when I meet someone new, I search for possible ways to connect them to the people I know are already in the room. It's a creative challenge I just love. And when I find those connections, I can make the connection on the spot, thus eliminating the need to follow up at all.

But I'm not always successful, so my next step is to make the connections on the spot, either using my laptop or a smart phone to send the email connection instead of promising to send it later.

As for the ones where I make the promise to connect, my last resort is to schedule an actual to-do item on my calendar that will beep at me as a reminder. That ping is enough to get me to do it, but this does require a bit of discipline to make work.

Hope that helps,

Gill

I really liked the post when you talked about your inventive mind.
It hit home with me when you stated you struggle following through after the newness of something rubs off.
That seems to be my problem.
What do you do to continue following through?

Hey, if you're on LinkedIn you should consider joining our LinkedIn group and asking your question there -- maybe someone has something that will get you started.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3377489&trk=hb_side_g

Gill

I appreciate!

Like you, I espouse to many of the same ideals the author incorporates in her Six Principles Of Buying Facilitation and found her lists of questions to ask prospects to be good ones. But I’m performance-based and results-driven and, without a process defined for accomplishing the results I’m after - without the numbers, the actual statistics, the real-world stories of success and failure - she and her book leave me wanting.

Thanks again for the insightful review. It saved me a lot of unnecessary reading.

Two things, though, they would greatly benefit from - The Prospect Disqualification Method and Getting Conditional Commitments.

Have you or Mr. Werth ever considered creating a two-day seminar devoted to these two areas? Participants would get hands-on experience they could put to use right away, could decide for themselves if they want to buy the book and could better evaluate the need to take the HPS course in its entirety. Just a thought. But I think great value could be derived from such a seminar.

Like you, I espouse to many of the same ideals the author incorporates in her Six Principles Of Buying Facilitation and found her lists of questions to ask prospects to be good ones. But I’m performance-based and results-driven and, without a process defined for accomplishing the results I’m after - without the numbers, the actual statistics, the real-world stories of success and failure - she and her book leave me wanting.

Thanks again for the insightful review. It saved me a lot of unnecessary reading.”

I checked into it awhile back, but having been exposed to High Probability Selling as well as Honest Selling, I eventually decided I did not like the program.

Thanks for an informative post.

The day before I bought my Toyota 4Runner I would have told you all the good and bad about the Toyota and all the good and bad about the Ford Explorer I was considering. Whereas the day after I wrote the check, you would have heard nothing but good about the 4Runner and nothing but bad about the Explorer.

So some sort of praise is normal. In your relationships, begin by tracking praise and setting a benchmark for what normal is. Then, keep your radar tuned for abnormal praise ... over-the-top glowing reviews or off-the-chart numbers of introductions and referrals.

When you spot abnormal is when you dial down the relationship a bit.

The goal when dealing with people who suffer this problem is to avoid becoming a confidant. They are typically capable of maintaining trust-based relationships for the long term, as long as the intimacy level doesn't increase.