I'll Give it a Try

Written by: Greta Schultz

Have you ever tried to pick up a pencil? Have you ever tried to take a drink of water? Of course not. You just do it.

Here’s another news flash: lack of commitment is why many salespeople fail. Their clients, too.

“I tried” is the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard, and I’d like to illustrate this point using the example of advertising.

There are approximately 120,000 salespeople selling some form of advertising in America. Each of those sales people will make “prospecting calls” to an average of three business owners per day. One business owner out of twelve will say “Well, maybe it does make sense for my business. I’ll go ahead and buy a small schedule and ‘give it a try’. And if it works, I’ll use your station/ paper product / (fill in the blank) on a regular basis.”

Sounds pretty good, right?

It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Let me share a similar example with you to prove my point. Let’s say you’re in Vegas. You’re standing at the roulette table thinking “I’m going to place a small bet on black and if I win, I’ll start betting black on a regular basis.”

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

There are thousands of business owners who make the decision to “give it a try” every day. And most of them experience poor results. Are they disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. Because they have “given it a try” before, with very limited success.

Why would business owners do what they’ve done before, but expect different results? Because bad salespeople taught them to. Not every product or service works this way. But if you’ve ever heard the old adage “over promise and under deliver,” you’ll get the same result.
“I’ll give it a try” or “Let me test the waters” are the signature phrase of an uncommitted customer. I think we’d be hard pressed to find them experiencing a high degree of reward from their efforts because there is non. With risk comes reward. Show me a committed and focused client and I’ll show you success in the making.