Blog Articles

Opportunities arrive in many shapes and forms which is why we (as business people) must be in a constant state of readiness to capitalise on them.

Sometimes they are income generating and other times they are in the form of someone who can accelerate our ambitions.

The challenge of course, is that we're often so busy and distracted by the day to day ‘task list’ that we literally stop seeing them for what they are...

One of the advantages of being a mature business person (Old :) is that we have learned when to be ‘decisively quick’ and when to be cautious, though this isn’t always the case as I’ve observed on a number of occasions recently.

As someone who spends a lot of time with business owners attempting to guide and mentor them, I can tell you with conviction that the reason most people miss the opportunity that’s standing in front of them is because they spend too much ‘time’ thinking there must be a catch or downside!

I’m organising some building work done at the house and so I’ve asked 3 builders to come in to quote on the work.

The first guy walked the area, asked a ton of questions (the right questions by the way) and asked when I wanted the work done as he and his team are 6 to 8 weeks out in terms of availability.

The second guy was also a nice chap and went into detail about all of the challenges that he seen with the job and also warned me that the kitchen people seemed to have missed a few pieces out on their mock up drawings. As he left he said he can fit in with whatever start date I needed.

The third guy spent a lot of time talking about his impending operation was also fixated on the detailed and spent a ‘lot of time’ looking at an artexed ceiling which he believed had asbestos in and told me I should commission an asbestos survey because many years ago they used to mix it in with the plaster and that his electricians wouldn’t work without knowing is was clean of asbestos. He too said he could start when needed.

So who got the job?

All three have good reputations and great recommendations on google, but only one got the job because they gave me the ‘feeling’ that they were the right people for the job…

All three had the same opportunity, but only one was 100% focused ‘on the opportunity’ and as a result won the job. The other two lost because they were focused on the wrong things!

I also believe I won the opportunity to have the right people to come into my home

My point being… Carpe diem is about reading the room, the landscape, the opportunity and NOT over thinking the detail,

It’s about being in the moment and seeing what or who is really in front of you, take too long to decide or gather more data and that opportunity will go elsewhere especially if that (builder in my case) is highly sought after by others…

John Kettley

John F Kettley is the founder of the Sales Masters Guild

 

A serial entrepreneur from his teenage years, John and his companies have sold a vast range of products and services across just about every market sector and medium there is, both here in Europe and the USA.

 

Find out more about John on his Sales Masters Guild profile page

 

Read more blogs from John