The Only Result that Matters

What makes a sales call on a potential customer a success?

Is it the fact that you didn’t get lost on the way to their office, that you arrived on time or that you remembered to bring your briefcase with all of your sales materials with you?

Was it a successful visit if you made it all the way through your sales pitch without forgetting any important points, you left some brochures behind or the client smiled at you?

Is any of that going to impress your bosses, when you get back to the office?

As a sales representative you are judged on one thing, and one thing only; results.  If you didn’t make the sale, or at least make some progress towards an eventual sale, you can’t really call your visit a success.

Speakers and presenters are no different, but we measure results not necessarily in terms of financial transactions, but rather in change.

If we didn’t trigger some change in our audience; a change in what they think, a change in how they feel, a change in what they believe or a change in what they will do, either now or in the future, we can’t really call our presentation a success.

It doesn’t matter that we wrote a good script or made some beautiful PowerPoint slides.

It doesn’t matter that we wore our best suit or outfit, polished our shoes until they gleamed or that we had a good hair day.

It doesn’t matter that we gave the whole presentation without notes, remembering all fourteen key points, in order, or even that we got a standing ovation.

All that matters is whether we triggered the change that we wanted in our audience.

That’s the result – the only result – that matters.