You can jazz it up as much as you like, with some companies providing more support than others, but a good salesperson; equipped with a phone and a computer, should be able to create something (magic!) from nothing! It’s an outcome based job & the more you put in will always lead to the more you get out!
That being said, what you put in still needs to be well thought out & not lead you to become, what we like to call at Robertson Sumner, a ‘busy fool’!!
So… What can you do to make sure that you’re:
A) Motivated on the task at hand
B) As focused as possible on developing business
C) Not being a ‘busy fool’!
1) Understand your ‘why’
It’s very hard to motivate yourself to do something, especially sales!, if you don’t understand ‘WHY’ you’re doing it…
So before you even pick up the phone, make sure you do a bit of soul searching to understand ‘why you’re doing the work you’re doing?’ This could be anything from ‘creating a better life for your family’ or ‘striving to be the top of the sales leaderboard!’ but if you have a strong ‘why’; every little bit of activity, every call, every sale & everything you do in the role will be working towards this!
2) Control the controllables
It’s easy to become overwhelmed with various personal and professional responsibilities. But the best sales people tend to be very good at focusing on the task in hand & only put time into elements of the job or sales process they’re able to control!
3) Double down on elements of the job where you’ve had the most success
We all know that salesperson who’s been trying a new method for around a year, 100% sure it’s going to generate tons of pipeline and money but when you ask if they’ve had any success they’ll say “not yet, but it’ll come”…
Now… Our advice here isn’t ‘never try anything new’ because that would be crazy & terrible advice. Instead if something isn’t working for you, cut it out quickly & don’t waste your time! Vice versa, if one element of the job is creating a huge amount of return and pipeline; find a way to create more time doing it!
4) Break tasks and activity into small chunks
Many studies claim that the brain struggles to focus on one activity, without a break, for much longer than one hour. Salespeople also tend to be an easily distracted group which makes this stat even more important when looking to remain focused & motivated!
We’d therefore recommend that you break down the activity you’ll need to do in order to comfortably hit your KPI’s that day (or just what you’re looking to achieve) into manageable chunks. Also, be strict with yourself when it comes to cutting off each task – it’s very easy to procrastinate on something, going round & round without going anywhere!
5) Surround yourself with like-minded, hard-working sales teams
There’s a saying that goes “you’re the average of the 5 people you hang with most – so surround yourself with hard workers”.
Now this saying isn’t always bang on but it’s still important to surround yourself with like-minded friends & colleagues who are constantly pushing you to succeed!
6) Reflect, reflect, reflect
This one is one of the biggest ones for us & we’d always recommend doing this on a daily, weekly, monthly, & annual basis.
We’ve all had that feeling that we’ve floated through a week or month, thinking we’ve achieved very little, only to look back and see what you’ve achieved & how far you’ve come!
Make sure you’re constantly reflecting; be proud of what you’ve done, doing more of the good stuff & analyse what you could of done better, allowing yourself to improve next time.
Hopefully these pointers help if you’re ever lacking motivation and if you ever reflect on your activity & realise you’re being a busy fool, cut out the behaviour before the activity becomes a habit!
