The importance of detail

I've got a lot to say on this one...but only a few minutes right now...

Here's the first part of this - to me, one of the most important things when starting an interaction with a prospect is first impression. I don't mean how you dress and did you comb your hair, I mean establishing that you can communicate clearly and professionally and have a strong grasp of detail and the english language.

I'm experimenting with how to test for this in interviews (let me know if you have any tips!), but my experience is that many many sales people either can't spell or use proper english grammar, or they don't care. I see terribly composed emails, sloppy attention to detail like getting the prospect's name and their company's name correct, etc. etc.

I think the sign of a good salesperson is that they know that investing another minute or two reviewing and perfecting their communications is well worth the effort. I know I tend to put things in the bit bucket when the person on the other end can't spend enough time to show me they care about things like that.

Sales is hard enough and people's attention span on the other end of our communications is almost non-existent, so why lower your odds with poor grammar and spelling mistakes? Yet check it out - it is rampant in our profession.