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Learn To Focus - Turbo Charge Your Sales Results
Written by: Meridith Elliott PowellArticle Overview: The power of focus is amazing to me. If you want better results then learn to focus. If you want a more motivated team then learn to focus. If you want to happier customers and high customer retention rates then learn to focus!
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Learn To Focus - Turbo Charge Your Sales Results
The power of focus amazes me. I find the results it produces
so incredible, that I have to wonder why there was not a class on how to focus
in school? Why is learning how to focus not a requirement to graduate?
Why did I spend all this time learning "the new math" or taking Film
as an elective? Makes no sense to me, as focus is a skill I will use for the
rest of my life, and I honestly cannot remember one thing I studied in film
class.
Learning to focus is one of the most useful skills there is for turning your
prospects into customers, and for achieving anything else you want to in life.
Believe me, I suffer from "everything sounds like a great idea to me"
syndrome. Google "easily distracted" and my name will appear. I want
to try, participate in, travel to, and enjoy everything. I am the person
infomercials are targeting. I say all this, because when I tell you first that
focus is powerful, and two that anyone can do it, I come with the credibility
to back it up. It took me a long time to embrace the concept of focus, then to
train my wide open personality to learn to do it. Am I glad I took the time?
You bet, the ability to focus is one of the most powerful tools you have in
your ability to turn your prospects into customers.
Let me share a story with you. When I first started in banking ( a long time
ago, back in the day when a loan actually had to cash flow before you were
allowed to make it) our company was just initiating their business banking
department. In my role as a business banking manager, it was my job to get this
program going to to assure we achieved our goals. This was challenging to say
the least as we were starting from scratch. My boss, Jeff Ward, called me into
his office and brought up this strange concept of focus. Sounded like a rule to
me, so I was naturally resistant, I hate rules!
He persisted (must have read my last blog) and we set a goal to book $350,000 a
month in business loans. We devised a plan (which I am going to share with you
in a moment) and within two months we were blowing that goal out of the water.
So, we moved the goal to $1,000,000. I will never forget Jeff and I saying to
each other, boy if we could do a million dollars a month that would be
incredible, and I was a little doubtful we could do it. Well, to cut
to the chase, by year's end we were booking three to four million a month in
business loans consistently. The power of focus is incredible! It is also easy.
So how do you do it? How do you learn to focus?
First, begin with the understanding of how your company makes money.
That may sound a little unconventional, but for goals to have meaning and
purpose you need to understand why they are your goals. One thing I advise all
of my clients, is to first make sure they have a good grasp of how they
make (and how they lose) money. If they have employees I advise them to teach
their employees how to do it. If you are an an employee, then go to your boss
and ask how the company makes money. It will open your eyes, shift your
paradigm and give you the knowledge you need to focus on the right things.
Two, set a goal. If you want to focus you need to know what you are
focusing on. I think it is good to have a financial and a visual goal. A number
you want to achieve and a visual of how that will look. In the example above,
we set a goal of not only booking a million a month in business loans, but we
knew that type of business growth would bring us the President's Award. (Which
it did.) The visual and the financial goal made a powerful combination in our
ability to focus and stay motivated.
Three, design the consistent behaviors you need to do to achieve that goal.
In other words, how are you going to focus?What things or actions are you going
to take day-in and day-out to make your goals? Example - how many networking
events are you going to attend? how many sales calls are you going to make? how
many sales follow-up calls etc. Establishing the actions you want to take is
simply your way of creating your plan to focus.
Four, hold yourself accountable. There is that word again, one of my
favorites. Track and measure your daily actions, then hold weekly meetings to
see how you are doing. This is key in your ability to learn what is going well,
and what is not going well. What actions are producing results, and what
actions are hindering results? A fifteen, thirty or sixty minute
weekly meeting is one of the best investments of time you can make. Better yet,
if you are part of a team, having these meetings as a group can bring
incredible insight, peer-to-peer coaching, and improved teamwork.
Five, commit to improve. Your weekly meetings will tell you what is
working and what is not. You need to commit to do whatever it takes to keep
doing what is working and improving what is not. Ask yourself? Do you
need to improve your skills? make more calls? choose better prospects? be
better prepared for calls? follow-up more? Whatever it is, if you want to
reap the benefits of focus, then you need to commit to improve.
Laugh, enjoy it, have fun with it and laugh. Focus is fun! That may sound a
little crazy, but it is true. When you see those results start going up, when
you watch a group of people start helping each other to succeed you cannot help
but smile, laugh and simply enjoy the process.
Focus is about improvement and results. When you use these steps, people enjoy
the process of focus and accountability. When you and your team
enjoy this process then a fat bottom line is inevitable!
If you want to prospects into customers']);"> turn your prospects into customers then learn to focus. Even if
you are doing well, learn to focus and your results will get even better.
Knowing what you want, how you are going to get there, and committing
to consistent accountability
and improvement will yield amazing results!
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Article Tags: business to business sales, focus, focus selling, sales strategy, selling to produce results
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About the Author: Meridith Elliott Powell RSS for Meridith's articles - Visit Meridith's website  Click here to visit Meridith's website   Change 1 Thing To Move From Hating To Loving Sales Are You Really Adding Customer Value 6 Tips To Turn Workplace Conflict Into A Strategic Asset Does Your Team Send The Right Message YES You Have To Ask For the Business |
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