You Don’t Have Time

By Mike Coday •  Updated: 10/21/23 •  4 min read

SALES DABBLERS

I don’t have time for sales dabblers!

Quick Summary

  1. Definition of Dabblers: Dabblers are identified as salespeople who exhibit a casual or nonchalant attitude toward their sales opportunities. They engage superficially, often without genuine commitment or intention to follow through effectively.
  2. Lack of Genuine Engagement: Although they may pose questions and seem involved, dabblers are characterized by their inaction. They spend time discussing, contemplating, and delaying rather than actively selling or contributing to sales efforts.
  3. Avoidance of Real Work: Dabblers prefer peripheral activities, such as attending training sessions or socializing, over the core sales activities that drive results. They avoid direct sales actions like prospecting, often making excuses to evade these responsibilities.
  4. Negative Impact on Team Morale: The presence of dabblers can be demoralizing for dedicated sales teams. Their lack of genuine effort and enthusiasm can drain the energy and motivation of more committed colleagues, potentially hindering overall team performance.
  5. Subtle Negativity: While not overtly pessimistic, dabblers contribute to a negative atmosphere through their lack of passion and commitment. Their indifference can be subtly disruptive, affecting the broader team’s mindset and drive.
  6. Cost of Time Wastage: Dabblers are described as “time sucks,” representing a cost to the business not just in potential sales lost, but in the valuable time of other team members. Their need for attention and tendency to engage in fruitless discussions consume resources that could be better invested elsewhere.
  7. Opportunity Cost: The time spent accommodating a dabbler’s indecisiveness and lack of action could be redirected to more productive business tasks or personal leisure. Their presence is seen as a hindrance to better resource allocation.
  8. Call to Action for Dabblers: The article directly addresses dabblers, urging them to recognize their lack of fit within the sales profession, particularly roofing sales, and to pursue other paths more aligned with their interests and commitment levels.
  9. Plea for Self-Reflection: Dabblers are encouraged to consider the broader impact of their approach on others and to make choices that are more authentic to their true interests, thereby freeing up resources and opportunities for those genuinely committed to sales.
  10. Ultimate Dismissal of Dabblers: The overarching message is one of intolerance for half-hearted participation in sales. The field is presented as demanding full commitment, with dabblers being implored to exit the profession for the betterment of all parties involved.

Dabblers are those salespeople who are casual, or flippant, about the opportunity of roofing sales.

They try to act like they’re fully engaged by asking a lot of basic questions, over and over again, but they never do much of anything.

They like to talk, think about it, talk some more, think, think, think, and then get back to you later.

NO REAL ACTION

Dabblers want to go to the training sessions, eat donuts, drink coffee, do the ride around, stop for lunch, take breaks, or even pass out a few flyers (if you really push them), but they’re full of excuses when it comes time to hit the street and do the actual work of prospecting.

Dabblers are enthusiasm killers.

Dabblers are like a vacuum sucking the life out of your better sales people and exhausting your support staff.

It isn’t that dabblers are terribly negative, they’re just not terribly positive…and that’s just terrible!

TIME SUCKS

Dabblers are expensive because they’re time sucks (and we all know time is money–actually, time is more valuable than money because you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time).

Every interaction with a dabbler costs you real money.

Let’s see, would you rather go home early, or maybe do some productive work on your business, or would you rather waste your time chatting up a worthless sales dabbler?

I don’t have time for dabblers!

You don’t have time for dabblers, either.

Peace,
Mike

P.S. If you’re a sales dabbler, constantly thinking and talking about going all-in, but never doing it, do yourself a favor, along with the rest of us, and quit roofing, please. Save your money, and your time, by investing in what you really love. Roofing isn’t your game. Do something else.

Mike Coday

Mike started selling roofs in '95 while working as a youth pastor at a small church in North Texas. A decade later he transitioned to speaking at industry conferences and training outside sales teams. Today, he works exclusively as the premier consultant to roofing company owners who are driven for growth.