Developing relationships with your prospect is important but if you are constantly making friends and not selling anything then perhaps you are worrying about your diminishing commission pay checks and you need to think about time management with whom you are dealing with.

It is fine to have friends and yes the people you meet in business can become personal friends, but if you are going around making friends all the time with everyone you meet but are not moving the sales process along you will not make any money or sales and then who will want you as a friend, as you will be a leach who never has the money to pay for anything. Gee whiz, who needs any more friends like that?

Please if you are going to do sales do sales and being friends is nice indeed, but there is a time for work and a time for play. You need to listen to the prospect and make sure your products and services are indeed what they are looking for.

You need to make sure that they are interested in what you are selling and move the sales process forward. If not and you decide they are indeed great people and you just want to be friends then do it.

But either way you have an obligation to your company and yourself to move the sales process forward or move on and stop wasting everyones time. Please consider this in 2006.