Standing there in my Lycra

There was a valuable business lesson in my garage this week.

After moving house, my road bike has been stored away in the garage for a few months but the lure of the road is once again calling.

So I duly donned my cycling gear, lots of lycra and safety gear, you get the idea.

The Problem in the Garage

When I pulled the forgotten odds and ends off my bike, there was a problem. The gears had had something heavy leaning on them for quite a while causing them to buckle. They are now unrideable.

If I'd just checked in with my bike during the last few months, I'd have probably avoided the problem, maybe even been out cycling this weekend. It really wouldn't have taken long to check-in either. Instead, I was stood there in lycra, trying to order parts off Google, my plans in tatters.

The Business Lesson

It reminds of many businesses' sales and marketing efforts at this time of year.

We've already heard the dreaded line this time of year, "call me in the New Year".

There's no way we could let them write nearly seven weeks of the year off. They'd have forgotten much of what we were talking about by January, and just like my nearly forgotten bicycle, the whole sales and marketing scenario would be worse off for the delay.

Interestingly, a couple of questions later, we were still talking with them - at a time when the rest of the competition were waiting until January!

Get Ahead Now

Want to make sure next year is smooth riding and you go through the gears with ease? Now is the time to give your prospects the attention they need.