Let me tell you a story about something that happened to me.
I was driving to the train station to catch a train back to Sydney.
The trip normally takes about 25 to 30 minutes, and I had allowed 45.
That should have been plenty of time.
But I encountered roadworks, rain and a traffic jam.
Suddenly, the time I had allowed was barely enough. The next train was three hours later, which meant I could miss my first two appointments.
As I approached the station, I had about five minutes before the train departed. I was still several kilometres away, and I had to park the car and buy a ticket.
I really wanted to be on that train.
As I came down the road where the train station was, a car pulled out in front of me from a petrol station driveway and stopped in the middle of the road. I didn't stop, in fact I didn't even slow down, I just swerved around the car.
A split second later, it happened.
That fateful flash in the rear view mirror.
A fixed speed camera had caught me speeding.
How could that have happened ?
It was a FIXED camera.
I knew it was there!
It had been there for 5 years!
I had driven past it 100 times!
I'll tell you how it happened.
I was watching the clock and NOT the speedo.
Now, what's this got to do with sales?
It's not about leaving to make the sales call earlier so traffic doesn't make you late.
It's about focus, sales focus.
When you are in a sales conversation, where is your attention?
Is it on the clock or the speedo?
The clock represented what I wanted. I wanted to reach the station before the train left.
Because I was focused on my destination and my timetable, I stopped paying proper attention to the conditions around me.
The same thing can happen in selling.
You may enter the conversation focused on:
Those objectives are not wrong.
The problem begins when your objective becomes so important that you stop noticing what is happening with the buyer.
If I had been watching the speedo and responding to the road conditions, I would not have been caught speeding.
The car that pulled out in front of me and stopped had actually broken down.
If I had been more focused on driving than the time , I would have been in a better position to respond safely when the broken-down car pulled out in front of me.
What if the driver had jumped out of their car to investigate without looking? I would have paid dearly.
My lack of attention could have cost considerably more than a speeding fine.
During a sales conversation, the buyer is your road condition and the progress of the conversation is your speedo.
Pay attention to:
Do not assume that silence means agreement.
Do not assume that politeness means interest.
And do not assume that an objection is merely a roadblock you should swerve around.
An objection may be telling you that the buyer sees a risk you have not understood, that someone else needs to be involved or that the value is not yet clear enough to justify change.
Your task is not simply to keep moving towards your preferred destination.
It is to notice what is happening and respond appropriately.
What roadblocks are preventing the buyer from moving forward?
Do you simply try to swerve around them, as I swerved around the car that pulled out in front of me?
Or do you slow down long enough to understand what is really happening?
A buyer’s hesitation may be telling you that:
If you treat every roadblock as something to overcome, you may react too quickly and miss the information it contains.
When your sales target, presentation or desire to close becomes your main focus, the buyer is likely to notice.
Your prospects will smell it like a shark smells blood in the water.
They will know you are only interested in your agenda and have no interest in their wants and needs.
They'll lose interest in you and your offer faster than banks put up their charges.
And once that happens, trust and interest can disappear very quickly.
In my story, the clock represented what I wanted, the problem I hoped to avoid and the timetable I was trying to meet.
It represented my agenda.
Your sales objective can affect you in the same way.
When you become too focused on closing, you may:
Your goal is still important. You are there to help a suitable buyer move towards a decision.
But you cannot guide the conversation effectively when your attention is fixed only on where you want it to end.
Your sales objective is not wrong.
You are there to help a suitable buyer move towards a decision.
But when that objective dominates your attention, you may present too soon, talk through an important silence or push for a next step before the buyer is ready.
You cannot guide the conversation effectively when you are watching only the clock and ignoring the speedo.
At several points during a sales conversation, silently ask yourself:
"What am I focusing on right now?"
Am I thinking about what I want to say next?
Am I worrying about whether I will get the sale?
Or am I paying attention to what the buyer is trying to understand, protect or decide?
Then ask:
"What is happening in the conversation that I may be missing?"
This brief pause can prevent your agenda from taking control of your attention.
It can also help you notice when you need to ask another question, clarify something, slow down or allow the buyer more time to think.
The lesson is simple.
Do not become so focused on the clock—your target, presentation, timetable or desired outcome—that you stop watching the speedo.
Keep your attention on the buyer, the conditions surrounding their decision and how the conversation is progressing.
Sales focus does not mean abandoning your objective.
It means remaining aware enough to recognise when the buyer needs another question, more clarity, less pressure or a different next step.
This is an important part of Buyer-Responsive Selling: responding to what the buyer needs rather than becoming trapped by your own sales agenda.
When you focus only on where you want the conversation to go, you can miss what is happening directly in front of you.
Keep your eye on the speedo.
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