Just how good are you at staying focused, not letting outside distractions interfere with the task at hand and being fully engaged with those around you?
I think as Sales Professionals most of us think we are pretty good at it. Heck, I’ve always been able to walk, talk and chew gum at the same time. But when it comes to being able to really focus and fully engage on more than one or two things at the same time I’m not quite as good as I thought.
A few months ago at a sales training seminar, we were given a homework assignment that didn’t seem too hard. We were asked during dinner to turn our cell phones off and focus on the person or persons we were talking to and not get distracted with what was going on around us.
Simple huh?
It was not as easy as you would think.
We went to dinner at a popular sports bar and grill. Football and baseball were on all the TV’s. The place was packed and very noisy. We had a group of over 12 people at our table all wanting to talk at the same time. The guy setting across from me was determined to discuss old movies that he considered “classics”. We had been in class all day and I knew I had calls and emails that needed attention. Not to mention tired and ready to go to bed. (I’m getting old and like to go to bed early)
In this atmosphere how could we possibly concentrate on anything?
The next day in class we discussed how hard it was to tune out the distractions and concentrate on what the person we were talking too was really saying and the effort it took to stay involved in the conversation. Especially, if we were not the one driving the conversation or interested in the topic. But I think we all agreed how enjoyable the dinner was and how much we learned just by staying fully engaged in the conversations.
Surprisingly or maybe not so surprising was the thing that most of us found the hardest was not being able to check our cell phones every few minutes as normal.
The purpose of the assignment was to remind us how difficult it is to focus on our Customers with so many distractions constantly going on around us.
How often do you call on a Customer and find you are not focusing on them or what they have to say?
If you are listening, are you fully engaged in the conversation?
Can you “Tune the World Out and Tune Your Customer In?”
So here is your homework assignment for the next few weeks.
Before each sales call:
Turn your cell phone off.
Tune the outside distractions out.
Then:
Focus on your Customer and their needs.
Listen and fully engage in the conversation.
I believe you will quickly see the quality of your sales calls improve and as you become more engaged you will see your Customers become more engaged as well.
This is something called the “Theory of Reciprocity” which is – responding to a positive action with another positive action. I will discuss reciprocity in a future post as I think this is crucial in the sales process.
Please give this assignment your best efforts and let me know how it goes. I can promise you it won’t be easy but with practice and intentionally eliminating outside distractions your sales performance will improve.
And don’t forget to always “spit”out your gum before making the sales call!
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Now let’s get out there and over-deliver!
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