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Guest post by: Cheryl A. Clausen Become an Author

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Keeping your focus on increasing sales may sound a little odd to you. You’re in sales or own your own small business of course your focus is on sales, or is it? Wouldn’t it just be a piece of cake if all you had to do was go out and sell? But there’s really so much more to it than that, isn’t there? The actual sale is just a final portion of the whole process: obtaining or generating leads, making a connection with those leads, securing the appointment, holding the appointment, and then making the sale.

There are a variety of point systems used in sales with the intention of motivating you to close more sales. These systems work quite well for some people, and for others they really don’t seem to move you any closer to an actual sale than using no point system at all. The objective of the point system is to gain a certain number of points each day with the idea if you consistently reach your point goal each day you’ll eventually start increasing your sales. The problem is you can get all your points each and every day, and yet see no increase in sales. Why, because it’s too easy to have your focus on the wrong things.

The first step is getting leads. Sometimes you get very caught up in getting leads and you spend the bulk of your time working on leads. You have to have leads to have anyone to sell to, but you of course have to get an appointment with those leads for them to have any potential value for you. Plus when you’re only focusing on leads rather than the desired end result a lot of those so called leads may be pretty big long shots. When you meet with long shots the likelihood of making a sale becomes an even longer shot.

When you focus on the appointment you may hold lots of appointments and still have few sales. You have a full appointment calendar, and you’re running yourself ragged meeting with all these potential clients. Yet few seem to materialize into a client because you aren’t focusing on the sale.

When you focus on the sale you have to get leads, make a connection, secure the appointment, and hold the appointment. But because your focus is on the sale all those things are just the underscore to the real symphony. At each step along the path you’re focused on doing the things you need to do to make the sale. So when you finally get your appointment you’re entire focus is on the sale. You’re listening to the prospect, gaining a full understanding and helping the prospect to discover what you know to be true. Together you reach a decision that you need to close this sale. Focus on the sale and get the desired prize.

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