CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Almost twenty five years ago, it was a cool December morning! The winter had just started in Karachi and the people had gathered after the prayers around the prayer leader. He was delivering his short speech which he had been doing since many years! He recited the following verse
36:82 Yaseen
“Whenever He (God) wills a thing, He just commands it “Be” and it is”.
But then he quickly added that: Yet God doesn’t do things often in this fashion! He takes time! He created heaven and the earth and all that is within in six days! He revealed 6236 holy verses in twenty three years bit by it; verse by verse; chapter by chapter; occasion by occasion!
He follows this because He loves to PLAN and then DO according to the PLAN ! He is the BEST PLANNER!
One of the wisest Muslim rulers said “For your worldly affairs, construct your plans based on the assumption that you will live forever, and as for the life after death, create your programs based on the belief that you will die tomorrow.”
It is thus inappropriate to do a haphazard job and assume that God will straighten out the mess because “He is kind,” and you are a “good man.” No, the plan of every successful man demonstrates the extent of physical work, talent, leadership, and vision that they exercise in all their undertakings.
Salesmen are the movers and shakers of the world! They discover needs and then the translates them into realities! Planning for them is of utmost importance!
Many salespeople are like Christopher Columbus! When Columbus left seeking a route to India, he didn’t know where he was going; when he reached America, he didn’t know where he had reached and when he returned to Spain, he didn’t know where he had been!
Similarly many salespeople set off in the morning with only a vague idea of where they are going. When they arrive at the customer’s place, they don’t know what exactly has brought them there. And when they arrive back at the office, they are not sure where they have been or what they have accomplished. Columbus was very lucky; most salespeople are not quite so.
Top salespeople are different. They think through their sales calls in advance. They go over what they are going to say mentally before they get face-to-face with the prospect. They practice “mental rehearsal,” a peak-performance technique used by all top athletes. A professional athlete always warms up before going onto the field. By the same token, professional salespeople warm up as well by mentally rehearsing so that they can perform at their very best when they get face-to-face with their customer.
In the next session, we will discuss why CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS succeeded even without a plan!