Be Present, Pay Attention, Be Nimble
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5:38PM 
Coreopsis at Sam KnobTwo conversations with sales colleagues in the past week inspired the theme of this blog. One was a conversation with Alan, who had just rejoined a former employer to take over an under-performing territory. Alan and I were noting that in our experience new sales opportunities often emerge unexpectedly and totally separately from our proactive outreach or cold calling campaigns. It's as if by "stirring the pot" through our own efforts, something from out in left field shows up. We agreed that the key success factors when such opportunities show up are 1) being fully present to the prospect and their story; 2) paying close attention in order to get clarity on the key buying motivations; and 3) taking quick and creative action to align our solutions with their need. Alan had already generated two new consulting engagements through this approach, creating such a high degree of trust and moving so quickly that the client felt no need to speak with the competition.
The second conversation was with Desiree, whom I met locally after coming across a notification of her talk on "The Power of Deep and Soulful Listening" submitted for IgniteAsheville.
I reached out to Desiree on Twitter, and we met over tea. Desiree told me the story of an eleventh-hour inspiration on the eve of her 46th birthday. She decided at 11:30pm that evening to offer a one-hour coaching session for the incredibly low price of $46 to anyone who scheduled the session the day of her birthday. She logged into her blog site, wrote the offer and sent out the notification to her blog and Twitter followers by midnight. By the next morning on her birthday, 20 people had signed up for sessions, many of whom have continued since with fully paid sessions.
In both Alan’s and Desiree’s case, they were fully present to see opportunities (or creative ideas in Desiree’s case) that presented themselves, they paid attention to how the opportunity could be leveraged, and they took swift action to bring it to fruition.
The photo you see here was taken at the end of a day of shooting when we were short on time; but the special moment of light, wildflowers and cloud formations were too good to pass up! Are you taking advantage of the three simple qualities, Be Present, Pay Attention and Be Nimble in your personal or professional life? Perhaps an even simpler title for this idea would be “seize the moment”!
Reader Comments (2)
This picture is full of air and light. The exact topic of your blog. When we stand in the moment we can SEE what is truly unfolding around us and seize the Beauty. Often I am less afraid when I'm truly living in that moment. This is wonderful information for me to remember as well.
Thanks for your comment Rebecca. Being fully present to the moment often reveals that the beauty we see in the Natural world is mirrored within us; and vice versa. In fact, I believe the two are intimately connected, if not One and the same....