Some years ago, a rep popped in to give me a quote. Even though I mentioned at least 5 times how hectically busy I was, he still engaged in story after story about his wife, kids, old school pals and more. Almost an hour later, I was literally hopping from foot to foot and finally had to politely edge him closer to the door in order to “escape”.

As a sales professional, do you really want your customer to be praying that you’d just shut up and leave? Do you really want them to start avoiding taking your calls? Or when a customer sees your car pull up unexpectedly, would you want her to quickly hide in the storeroom to avoid spending 2 hours with you?

As Jill Konrath so aptly describes, customers and prospects are ‘crazy-busy’ at the best of times. They don’t have time to waste. Especially the real decision-makers.