Winston Churchill, one of the most fearless leaders of all time, once said: “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones every dog that barks”.
And it’s meaning cannot be much truer than today.
Now that we live in a technology-driven world, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the concept of multitasking that we often miss the miss important things in our life.
For instance, how many of us cannot last a commute to work without turning on our mobile data and start browsing the internet, instead of enjoying the view outside?
And don’t even mention the sea of people who would raise their smartphones throughout the whole concert just to record the event instead of enjoying the moment!
Multitasking in Sales? Think Twice!
Ironically, now that the concept of multitasking is getting more popular, and so many of us have lost focus on more important things that need to be done first. And this especially true in the sales industry.
Not only the salespeople are bound to juggle different complex processes each day, but other factors such as requests from lousy managers, internal politics, and personal dilemmas make it quite challenging for them to stay productive and focused on what’s important to achieve the desired outcome of the organisation.
Although it can be easy to put the phone down and live the moment, in the sales department, it is not that easy.
If your sales team don’t know how to shift their focus properly or focused on too many things at once, they won’t be able to achieve maximum results.
Focus is a critical element that allows your salespeople to have time to complete tasks that will give them more control over their success.
To keep your sales team focused on today’s very distracting world, consider the following tips:
1. Establish Clear Office Policies
From analysing previous month’s results, answering calls, finishing proposals and managing social media profiles, your salespeople spend a lot of time on various tasks every day.
The time they spend on these tasks can take away their focus from their main responsibility.
In order to keep them focused, consider establishing an office policy which includes the following guidelines:
-
Only use the business email, phone calls and texts for business-related activities. Personal communications should be saved for a time.
-
A dedicated time-frame should be established to respond to all non-business related or non-essential communication.
2. Ensure That Everyone Knows The Short-Term Goals
Long-term goals are easy to set, but it’s the incremental short-term goals that will keep your sales team on track and eventually reach their goals.
Instead of stressing them to reach their monthly or yearly sales quota, set daily and weekly goals to aim for and make sure that everyone is aware of it.
One way to do this is to conduct a morning and afternoon standups each workday.
Get your team together at the same time every workday morning and afternoon and tell them about the agenda and let everyone have the chance to share their own insights. This is a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page as far as business goals are concerned.
3. Schedule Team Retrospectives
Be it a weekly, monthly or quarterly, regular sales team retrospective is a great way to ensure that your team can identify the exact course of action they must execute regarding things that have taken place prior the meeting.
Aside from harnesses the collective focus of your team, the lessons that each salesperson can bring to the table as well as the challenges encountered often prove useful across the team.
4. Be Generous With Praise And Feedback
Whether is a small or big win, make sure to celebrate each milestone that your sales team achieves.
This is very important in order to keep your team motivated in their job.
If the small wins are unrecognised or worse – unheard, the salesperson will most likely feel undervalued and may lose the confidence to do achieve bigger results.
A simple mention in front of teammates during a meeting can definitely make a salesperson’s day and can boost their confidence to carry through the week.
The same goes for bigger wins.
If a salesperson managed to close a deal with a big client, there’s nothing better than to celebrate it with the rest of the team, perhaps over a few drinks, to let him discuss his struggles and sales victories.
5. Know When To Take A Break
Obviously, your team would not be able to retain their focus if they don’t have the energy to do their work.
Not only storming through a list of a hundred leads, clearing previous tasks, responding to all emails and texts, and taking customer calls a very tiring process, but these daily routines can easily deteriorate their creativity, which is extremely crucial on more important tasks such as when pursuing sales leads and maintaining good relationship with customers.
To ensure your team have that energy to execute these mundane tasks effectively, you need to set aside a sufficient break-time and be as strict with it as you are when you are selling.
6. Collaboration In Times of Rejection
Rejections from prospects can either make or break your sales team.
True enough, a day full of complaints or prospecting rejections can be quite discouraging for any salesperson.
But a skilled salesperson also knows how to view these challenges as opportunities to work harder and develop more strategic approaches.
To keep your team focused on ways to overcome these challenges that they may encounter, push them to work collaboratively on responding to frequently encountered concerns and encourage them to put those newly developed responses to practice.
Focus can help your sales team to maximise their talents on things that will bring positive results to your business.
