Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth Part 2
Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth Part 2
There are two facets to “individual-specific” distractions: 1) state of mind, and 2) quality of activity. State of mind is the primary culprit. To complicate matters, a person’s state of mind changes constantly. It is important that a sales manager stay in touch with their sales staffs’ lives and how they are feeling. As people transition through the different stages of life, their motivations and distractions change. In addition, daily, their emotions will dramatically affect their ability to become distracted.
I coach some million-dollar producers. It is my job to help keep these salespeople from being distracted by their emotions. Distractions hide themselves in many forms and often are invisible to the distracted individual. Everyone else can see them but not that person. You will have salespeople that are exerting half the effort and yet with much sincerity claim that they are killing themselves and could not possibly do another thing. They will blame the economy, their lack of experience in the industry, being recently inserted in a new geographic area, and a million other reasons why they are not performing. It is never their effort that is lacking.
While you may be content with your sales production, the following questions assist in maintaining that level. Also, it is important to have balance, and my list should not imply that you foul up your personal lives and neglect your family. Anything in excess is not good. In addition, timing is important. If you are at the beginning of your career, almost broke, starting a new job, or in some similar circumstance, your level of effort and personal sacrifice should show it.
The list below is designed to help a salesperson identify some of the common distractions that many of my clients have allowed to hurt their sales funnel:
- Do you have lunch and/or breakfast regularly with people who are not prospects and/or are not giving you referrals regularly?
- Are you scheduling personal activities (e.g. saleperson’s or children’s nonemergency doctor visits) at times that compromise your production?
- Are you taking family members or friends to doctor visits to make them (or you) feel good when someone else (that does not work on commission) can take them?
- Are you managing your meetings so that they are not longer than they should be?
- Are you allowing paperwork (e.g. expense reports) and organizing your office that can be done by others consume too much of your time?
- Do you work in teams, and do you allow all the deals the other people are bringing in mask the fact that you are not doing enough hunting, qualifying, and closing on your own?
- Do you have a favorite charity or committee that you allow to absorb too much of your time so that you destroy your return on investment?
- When you go to networking meetings are you spending too much time speaking with the same people instead of seeking out new ones?
- When you go to networking meetings do you spend your time talking, sitting and eating with people from your own firm?
- Are you meeting with too many people that are not really prospects?
- Do you target a prospect company’s decision-makers first so that you do not have to work your way up the organization?
- Are you on too many boards and committees and spreading yourself too thin?
- Do you work from home and allow things in the house to prevent you from doing what you need to do?
- Do you have friends that you like to exchange e-mail or phone calls with on a daily basis that are not helping you get any closer to making a sale?
In the end, your success can grow dramatically by managing distractions. We all have them and some avoid them better than others. The cost is great whether it is paid by a top or bottom producer. A career in sales is a tough job in any economy. While we cannot win every sale, every minute spent on a distraction is a guaranteed no sale.
Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth Part 2 - To learn more about this author, visit Howard Shore's Website.
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The most common thief of sales growth is distraction. Based on my experience, I estimate that on average, employees lose 40% of their time to distractions. This number ranges between 30% and 60%, depending on the company they work for, and can reach as high as 70%, depending on the individual. Distractions can be classified into two types: 1) leadership and organization; and 2) individual-specific. The leadership and organization distractions can be categorized into poor sales support, customer service mishaps, products that do not meet client needs, bad sales management, and poor communications. “Individual-specific” distractions refer to daily mental or situational conditions faced by the salesperson. Part I of this article dealt with the leadership and organization, and this article will focus on “individual-specific” obstacles.
There are two facets to “individual-specific” distractions: 1) state of mind, and 2) quality of activity. State of mind is the primary culprit. To complicate matters, a person’s state of mind changes constantly. It is important that a sales manager stay in touch with their sales staffs’ lives and how they are feeling. As people transition through the different stages of life, their motivations and distractions change. In addition, daily, their emotions will dramatically affect their ability to become distracted.
I coach some million-dollar producers. It is my job to help keep these salespeople from being distracted by their emotions. Distractions hide themselves in many forms and often are invisible to the distracted individual. Everyone else can see them but not that person. You will have salespeople that are exerting half the effort and yet with much sincerity claim that they are killing themselves and could not possibly do another thing. They will blame the economy, their lack of experience in the industry, being recently inserted in a new geographic area, and a million other reasons why they are not performing. It is never their effort that is lacking.
While you may be content with your sales production, the following questions assist in maintaining that level. Also, it is important to have balance, and my list should not imply that you foul up your personal lives and neglect your family. Anything in excess is not good. In addition, timing is important. If you are at the beginning of your career, almost broke, starting a new job, or in some similar circumstance, your level of effort and personal sacrifice should show it.
The list below is designed to help a salesperson identify some of the common distractions that many of my clients have allowed to hurt their sales funnel:
- Do you have lunch and/or breakfast regularly with people who are not prospects and/or are not giving you referrals regularly?
- Are you scheduling personal activities (e.g. saleperson’s or children’s nonemergency doctor visits) at times that compromise your production?
- Are you taking family members or friends to doctor visits to make them (or you) feel good when someone else (that does not work on commission) can take them?
- Are you managing your meetings so that they are not longer than they should be?
- Are you allowing paperwork (e.g. expense reports) and organizing your office that can be done by others consume too much of your time?
- Do you work in teams, and do you allow all the deals the other people are bringing in mask the fact that you are not doing enough hunting, qualifying, and closing on your own?
- Do you have a favorite charity or committee that you allow to absorb too much of your time so that you destroy your return on investment?
- When you go to networking meetings are you spending too much time speaking with the same people instead of seeking out new ones?
- When you go to networking meetings do you spend your time talking, sitting and eating with people from your own firm?
- Are you meeting with too many people that are not really prospects?
- Do you target a prospect company’s decision-makers first so that you do not have to work your way up the organization?
- Are you on too many boards and committees and spreading yourself too thin?
- Do you work from home and allow things in the house to prevent you from doing what you need to do?
- Do you have friends that you like to exchange e-mail or phone calls with on a daily basis that are not helping you get any closer to making a sale?
In the end, your success can grow dramatically by managing distractions. We all have them and some avoid them better than others. The cost is great whether it is paid by a top or bottom producer. A career in sales is a tough job in any economy. While we cannot win every sale, every minute spent on a distraction is a guaranteed no sale.
Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth Part 2 - To learn more about this author, visit Howard Shore's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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