Wait Until You Catch Up- A Perfect Failure

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A Perfect Failure Series Part 2: Wait Until You Catch Up

🕒 2 min read

By Frank Hurtte

Every salesperson on the planet shares the same fantasy. Someday, they're going to get caught up. Every email will be answered. Every quote will be completed. Every CRM record will be updated. Every voicemail will be returned. They'll finally lean back in their chair, admire a perfectly organized desk, and shout hurrah.

Here I sit, almost five decades into my career, and that day has never arrived. I leave the office with twenty emails in my inbox and return the next morning to find sixty. I'm convinced my to-do list breeds after dark. Nobody has explained the biology.

How does 20 become 60 overnight?

Quotes multiply. Meetings appear on the calendar without permission. Customers somehow develop emergencies while I'm sleeping. If you're waiting until you've caught up before you begin prospecting, you've unintentionally created a permanent excuse.

Successful salespeople don't finish everything. They finish the right things. There's a huge difference between being busy and creating value. Some confuse motion with progress. Granny's rocking chair moves all day long without ever leaving the porch.

To Be Perfectly Frank...

Customers don't care how organized your desk is. They care whether you return their calls.


Catch up on Part 1: Stop Waiting to Feel Ready to Sell


Next week, Part 3: Expect Your Company to Be Perfect.



TL;DR:

Waiting to feel "caught up" before prospecting is a trap; the inbox and to-do list never stay empty. Top salespeople don't finish everything; they finish the right things.



About the Author:

Frank Hurtte is Founding Partner of River Heights Consulting, where he's spent the better part of five decades proving that "I'll get caught up" is the longest-running fiction in the sales profession. His inbox currently has more unread messages than his high school graduating class had students, and he's made peace with it. When he's not helping distributors sell smarter, he's discovering new emails have somehow multiplied overnight.





If you want a shortcut to understanding where AI fits in distribution, this is a great start. 



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