By Larry Prevost, Dale Carnegie Training Instructor

It's proving to be a busy Friday and 11:59 a.m. rolls up fairly quickly. I power up my phone, put in my bluetooth, get on a conference call and hit the mute button so I can listen while taking care of some of the other errands that I need to get done today.

I hop in the car and get started picking the tasks off one at a time.

After I get everything squared away, I drive down to pick up a quick lunch and a thermos of coffee at Starbucks. It is now 1:05, the conference call has ended, and I'm standing in line at Starbucks to order up a bold Venti.

That's when it hit me: I had a meeting with a sales rep at 1 p.m. today and I'm missing it!

Yet I'm not even stressed out about it--and I'm in no real hurry to get back to the office.

Let me back up to my initial meeting with "Bob," and you'll have a better picture of why I didn't care.

Last Wednesday, Bob dropped by our office. It was a relatively nice day and Bob was taking advantage of it by doing some door-to-door cold calling, introducing himself and dropping off contact information. I've got no problem with that. In fact, I admire anyone that has the confidence to walk in the door of a company and the skill to start a decent conversation.

Bob, however, did some things that really didn't make this initial meeting impactful and really didn't give me the impression that there was any real value in his offer.

1. To get your prospect's attention keep your pleasantries relevant and short.

Bob started by doing the one thing that I recommend people not do when they first meet with a prospect--talking about the office décor.

I've got three computers on my desk, one desktop and two laptops. I've got an HTML book spread open in one corner of the desk. I've got a JavaScript book open on top of another spot on the desk. And I've got one of our strategic presentations program manuals opened in the middle of the desk. (I'm looking for ways to put more of our class information online and make it more interactive for our community.)

But what does Bob mention as a way of getting my attention?

Next Page: Don't Make This Mistake

Get More Sales Tips and Advice in the Sales Expertise Center

More Manta Resources: Over Quota Newsletter for Sales Pros: Subscribe now! Report Finder: Download Market Research, Contacts & More

A Free CRM Right Here
myManta is full of the tools you need to build, manage, sort and share your contact lists. This tool is free to Manta members and allows you to have the core features and functionality of a contact relationship management (CRM) system. Give it try now.