There was such a strong reaction to my last post, “Busyness Does Not Necessarily Drive New Business” that the past week I’ve been challenging salespeople and sales leaders about Sales Productivity nonstop!
It seems like every sales team I observe is struggling with overwhelm. Too many distractions. Too much going on. Too many requests from corporate. Too many company meetings. Too much information. Too much time “playing” on LinkedIn. Too many emails. Too much customer service burden. Too much accounting and admin. And too little time spent on the only three things that drive more New Sales.
Sales Friends, sales is about results. Sales is about results. Sales is about results! Our job is different. We don’t get paid to do “work.” We earn a living by driving results. There are no prizes for getting to inbox zero and no one is winning the trip to Club or earning big commission checks by doing the customer service department’s or operation’s jobs for them.
Sales results are a function of three sales verbs that all revolve around sales opportunities. Our job, as simply as I can break it down, depends on us doing three things well: We must CREATE new opportunities. We must ADVANCE existing opportunities. And must CLOSE opportunities.
There is no argument here. That’s not controversial statement or up for debate. If you sell, your primary job is to create, advance, and close sales opportunities. If you lead a sales team, it’s your job to maximize your team’s ability to execute those three sales verbs. Period.
So let me ask you: what percent of your sales day, your sales week, your sales month, your sales quarter, and your sales year is spent solely focused on doing one of those three sales verbs? Said more simply, how much of your time is laser-focused on creating, advancing, and closing opportunities vs. all the other non-sales-driving nonsense you do?
If you want more New Sales, you have to spend more time working on New Sales. Find ways to extricate yourself from distractions, busywork, and the garbage stealing your time and energy, and become absolutely ruthless with your calendar. Stop overcomplicating your job and become more Selfishly Productive to maximize time dedicated to the only three sales verbs that drive results. The great Brian Tracy taught us years ago to ask ourselves all day long, “Is what I’m doing right now leading to a sale?” That was brilliant counsel. How much more productive would you be and how much would your results increase if every hour you stopped to ask, “Is what I’m doing creating, advancing, or closing a sales opportunity?” If you are like most sellers I observe, currently, the answer to that question would typically be “no.” What needs to happen for you to change that?
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Update on the Sales Truth Book Launch:
I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by the response to Sales Truth and we are still 12 days from the official release date. The Launch Team is reading their advance copies and sharing their excitement with social posts and pictures with the book everywhere! Search #SalesTruth on your favorite social media channel to see some salespeople having a lot fun with it! Many corporate clients have made significant bulk preorder purchases and I’m thanking them by doing free workshops and keynotes. If that is of your interest to you, please contact me and I’d love to create something for your team. Here’s a link to get a sneak peek at the front matter (endorsements, dedication, table of contents, foreword, and chapter 1).
And there’s still time to snag the preorder bonuses at SalesTruthBook.com.
