How much time do you spend deliberately selling?
Distractions, Shiny Object Syndrome, and other excuses are keeping you away from the one thing that's more important than anything else.
The word "deliberate" has been showing up a lot in conversations and my social media feeds all week. I don't know why, but when I notice something like that, I tend to write about it, because I can't be the only one noticing it. So let me ask you—how much time do you spend actually selling every week? I mean deliberately performing the kinds of activities that will directly yield revenue?
How many hours (or is it minutes?) each week do you have in front of a customer or a prospect that can give you or your company money? Additionally, how much time do you spend identifying and pursuing opportunities to do the same with new prospects?
There are a lot of distractions that come up constantly—meetings, tasks, notifications, etc., that take you away from your real work. They're the urgent, but not important, interruptions that should be ignored. The best way I've found to ignore them is to deliberately focus on the real work you need to do. Set boundaries around those activities and make sure they get done at the cost of anything else.
I spoke to a CEO this week of a small startup company. They've not been bringing in the revenue that they know they're capable of. They tracked the proactive calls and emails they've been sending to customers, and between the two people in charge of bringing in revenue, those outreach attempts totaled 5-10 a week! Does that sound familiar? After recognizing that, they've been working very diligently to bring those totals up, which is to their credit, and they are increasing their outreach attempts. It's not that there isn't time. If each of those two people spent 30 minutes a day proactively selling, that number would go up at least 10 times, and that includes leaving voicemail messages!
I've got clients who are business owners who will let just about any potential distraction get in the way of proactive selling, and there are a lot of distractions. What they fail to realize is that the whirlwind could be drastically reduced and more easily managed if they would deliberately take charge of their selling process. If they took just a few of their pretty good customers, applied some focus, and turned them into loyal, appreciative customers, so much of the other minutiae could be avoided or ignored. Yes—more revenue with fewer headaches.
When I think about these companies and their struggles, my eight-year-old son immediately comes to mind. I know I sent him into his room to get dressed for school, but all of his toys are right there... Now we're hustling to catch the bus. It's not that they don't have well-meaning intentions, but with so many seemingly important things to do, it feels like doing anything will be productive. You have to keep in mind though, that not everything on your to-do list is equally valuable or important.
Almost anybody in business today faces these challenges, especially if they're behind their targets. There are voices yelling at us from every direction telling us what to do, offering magic pills, potions, and secret sauces to "crush your number." There's even some solid advice in there if salespeople only took the time to deliberately put it to use. Instead, it's on to the next one when the first plan doesn't work immediately, and the message goes in one ear and out the other. It's as if the search for a better way has become the new corporate addiction, while tried-and-true methods and principles are being ignored and/or forgotten.
Regardless of what you sell or what kind of business you're in, you have a to-do list somewhere, either on your phone, your desk, or a whiteboard. You need to forget about that list and focus instead on your "must-do" list. For most people in sales, it looks something like this (and probably in this order) every week...
1. you need to be seeking new opportunities
2. you need to be moving existing opportunities through your pipeline
3. you should probably be keeping track of these processes in some sort of CRM system
The number of opportunities may vary, the inbound vs. outbound discussion isn't important here (so long as enough opportunities exist), and it doesn't matter if your CRM was very expensive or if it's a yellow legal pad and a pencil. Virtually everything else can be either delegated or completely ignored, yet your "to-do" list is precisely what is impeding your ability to tackle the "must-do's."
That's backward, you know it, and you need to fix it.
Recently, Christie and I talked to Phill Keene for an episode of The Why and the Buy. He took over an inside sales team just ten months ago, and despite being down three team members, they're up 19% this year over last. I asked him what the secret was. He said the biggest difference was that the team sets agendas at the beginning, and is asking for specific next steps at the end, of every call. His team is more intentional about their activity, and they're making huge leaps in revenue. They train together regularly, but it's the deliberate execution of the fundamentals, not an all-new tech stack or a magic bullet that's making the difference.
Selling is not rocket science. If you want to grow your business, predictably, you need to diligently and deliberately engage in activities that will drive that growth. Non-essential meetings, social media, and most email doesn't really do that for you.
Let's say you have to circle the wagons in your business or your territory and do nothing but the bare essentials for the next two weeks. Maybe you're going on vacation, or you're going to be short-staffed for some reason... What would that must-do list look like? It's probably only 3-5 items long, and it looks a lot like the one I listed above. If they're the only things you need to do when your business is in a mini-crisis, then why are they almost the last things you do during a normal week?
In his new book #SalesTruth, Mike Weinberg poses a brilliant question... Would your calendar provide enough evidence to convict you of making the necessary effort to grow your business? Do those "must-do" activities show themselves over the past few weeks? Are they already scheduled for the next few? Furthermore, what boundaries are in place to ensure that these "must-do" items are executed? How will you, or someone else, hold you accountable?
Once these standards are in place, real, tangible results tend to follow suit. It turns out that the silver bullet has been right in front of you all along. Be more deliberate about the things that matter, and be more immune to the beeps, buzzes, and peer pressure surrounding the other stuff. The numbers speak for themselves, and results tend to quiet the haters in a hurry.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
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