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One of the Most Important Sales Skills

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: When it comes to selling your services many find it a frustrating experience. You are after all virtually selling thin air.

One of the Most Important Sales Skills

When it comes to selling your services many find it a frustrating experience. You are after all virtually selling thin air. Or at least that's how it sounds to your buyers. There are so many things you could do, and so many things you should do. And then, of course, there are all the things you must do.

Bottom line many business owners find themselves digging a deep hole going nowhere. You are working hard and have little to show for your efforts.

So what can you do to stop the insanity and start selling something?

This is where one of the most important skills in sales comes into play in the success of your business. That skill is focus. When I say focus I mean placing all your focus on the single task you are doing right now.

Don't blow that off because it's critical to your future and your success. You see most people try to check their email, talk on the phone, and interact with another person all at the same time. That's ridiculous.

The more you try to do a bunch of things at once the less you get done. Worse yet, the less effective you are at getting anything done much less doing any one thing well. On top of that because you aren't focused on one thing and one thing only you are missing the opportunities to learn from and improve that one thing.

When you allow distractions it's easy to get frustrated and discouraged. You begin to question, "Will I succeed?" You begin to imagine problems and barriers that aren't even there.

None of those thoughts or distractions are productive. Those distractions cost you both time and money.

Doing things on a massive scale without focus is almost a complete waste of time. If you've ever dialed for dollars or attended lots of networking events to get your name out there you understand exactly what I mean. All that work and almost nothing to show for it... what a pity?

The reason you worked so hard and got so little in return is because you didn't focus on what you were doing, what doing that produced, and what you could adapt to make doing that work. When you really focus on the task at hand you immediately pick up on those points of tension. Then you begin to question what you could do to avoid those points of tension. As you get better at avoiding those points of tension and resistance you quickly discover it's easy to accomplish what you wanted in the first place.

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Article Tags: bottom line, business owners, complete waste of time, deep hole, distractions, insanity, many things, massive scale, networking events, thin air, time and money, waste of time



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Re: What works for you? - Hi Yinka, I work better under pressure of deadlines when I am doing something for other people. However, I like to have the leisure to develop my own projects. The first case is what Stephen Covey calls a "Quadrant 1" activity ("Important and urgent") whereas the second case is a "Quadrant 2" activity ("Important, not urgent"). We should aim to make as much time as possible for Q2 activities so that we can develop our own projects. Easier said than done!
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Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners - 1. Focus 2. Ability to Adapt 3. Hard Work 4. Good planning 5. People Skills


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