Andy Paul's Blog, page 54

First, Turn Your Phone Off

Sellers, turn your mobile phones off

And put them away, out of sight, while you’re making sales calls.

It’s so obvious that one would think you shouldn’t have to remind people. And, yet…

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Recently, I conducted a workshop for a client and their roughly 80 inside sales reps. A majority of one particular teaching session focused on the basic habits and behaviors that accelerate the process of establishing rapport and building trust with buyers. We worked on techniques that taught them on how to be present in a conversation with a buyer, how to to focus on the customer through questions and listening carefully to their answers.

Not surprisingly, throughout the day, there were sales reps in the room that occasionally were sneaking peeks at their phones (or, as I like to call them, WMDs – weapons of mass distraction.) Perhaps just a quick look at an email. Or text. Or social share.

I see this distracted behavior everywhere. Sales calls. Sales meetings. Phone calls. Video calls.

I decided to do a little ad hoc research. I paused my presentation and I asked the 80 sales reps to raise their hands if they kept their mobile phones out on their desks while they were making outbound customer phone calls. 100% of those in the room raised their hands. An unfortunate consensus.

Then my follow-up question. How many of you will look at your phone if it buzzes, or otherwise notifies you of activity, while you’re on a call with a buyer? 80% raised their hands. And, going by the sheepish looks I was seeing from those who hadn’t raised their hands, it was clear that the actual number was closer to 100%.

No big deal, right? Just a little harmless multi-tasking.

You think you can. But, you can’t.

Except the research has been done and the science is inarguably conclusive about your ability to multi-task. Or to maintain peak concentration as you rapidly switch your attention between tasks. You can’t.

As human beings we are incapable of multi-tasking. We’re lucky if we can do one thing at a time well. Two or more things at the same time? Forget about it.

According to a series of tests conducted by scientists from Carnegie-Mellon University, the distraction of an email interruption made participants in their research study 20% dumber.

Studies have shown that diverting your attention from one task to look at your phone for as little as 5 secs can cost you at least a minute of your attention. Meaning it can take you an entire minute (or more) to fully re-engage your focus on the task you were working on before you interrupted yourself to look at your phone.

Uh, I didn’t catch that. Do you mind repeating…

So, imagine that you’re on a call with a new prospect and you’re trying to establish a rapport and build trust with her, and your phone buzzes. You have a choice. Do you glance at your phone, take your attention away from the buyer and risk losing track of the conversation with the buyer? Or do you just ignore your phone because only bad things can happen if your don’t.

Buyers are people. They can immediately sense when you are distracted. (Just as my wife immediately knows when I glance at my email while talking on the phone with her.)

One of your primary responsibilities as a salesperson is to earn additional time from your prospects in order to continue to sell to them. You do this by providing value to them in return for the time they’ve given you. You can’t do this when you’re distracted.

The late Clifford Nass, a Stanford sociologist and leading authority on multitasking, was quoted as saying that those who habitually attempt to multi-task are “suckers for irrelevancy.”

20% dumber and irrelevant to your prospects? Is that really where you want to be?

Sales is hard enough as it is. Make it easier on yourself. Just turn off your mobile phone and put it away before you talk with your customers.

For more strategies to help you succeed, in sales or whatever you do, listen to Accelerate!, my top-rated podcast. 6 days per week I publish conversations with world-class experts that will help you acquire and retain new customers. Click here to catch up with any of the 340+ episodes I’ve released so far.

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How to Get Motivated for 2017 (and beyond.) With Bridget Gleason. #348

Welcome to the year’s first episode of Front Line Friday with my remarkable guest, Bridget Gleason. On this week’s episode, Bridget and I discuss, among other topics, looking forward to the new challenges of the new year, how motivation — the why — underlies all action, great principles we’ve picked up from books we’ve read, and  what managers need to know about their team members to help them succeed in 2017.

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How to Increase Your Sales Effectiveness. With George Brontén. #347

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest George Brontén, Founder and CEO of Membrain, a sales effectiveness platform based out of Sweden. Among the many topics that George and I discuss are include whether there is a global crisis in sales effectiveness, war stories of sales gone wrong, and the factors that help a sales professional to be more effective.

 

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How to Build a Team for the Complex Enterprise Sale. With Marcy Campbell. #346

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest Marcy Campbell, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales & Business Development at Qubole. Qubole simplifies provisioning, management, and scaling of big data analytics workloads. Among the many topics that Marcy and I discuss are Marcy’s unique sales background, the challenges of selling a disruptive product in a competitive environment, the qualifications needed for complex tech sales, and reasons why there aren’t more women in tech sales today.

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Are You Afraid of Success?

Are you afraid of sales success?

You’ve all heard of fear of failure.

Fear of failure has a sibling that could be holding you back. It’s called fear of success. Psychologists have a name for it: achievemephobia.

I often think that this is a bigger problem for sales leaders and sales professionals than a fear of failure.

I worked with a client where the top performing Account Exec, Charles, had to leave the room every time he was on the verge of closing a new order. Whenever he reached the final few minutes of conversation where the customer was going to commit, he would excuse himself to “make an urgent call.” Understandably this often created an awkward moment with the buyer. Just at the critical moment.

Don’t Fear the Expectations of Others

I asked Charles to try to analyze why he freaked out in this situation. As we talked about it it became clear that his fears were focused on the expectations that would be created as a result of winning the deal. This is a typical anxiety that accompanies a fear of success.

First, his VP of Sales, the CEO and the investors would now expect him to close more deals just like this one. Charles nervously said that they didn’t see “just how really just lucky we were to have won this deal” and that “there aren’t any other deals like this one out there” and “how in the world did we win this one anyway?”

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, this new customer would be expecting great service and a solid product. “Are we really ready for this?” And even though customer success was not his responsibility, he was already projecting forward, “If we really nail this one, then there will be others just like it. How are we going to support and service them? Where are we going to find the people and resources?”

I’ve witnessed sales reps and sales leaders subconsciously undermine their own success through actions or words with buyers that seemed completely out of character. This is a symptom of achievemephobia.

Visualize The Positives of Success

There are steps you can take to deal with a fear of success. Visualization is a simple tool that you can use to change negative thoughts into positive actions. Think about the sales situations that you encounter that typically trigger anxiety and envision what you could do differently that would keep you feeling positive about the outcomes. Visualize what you would do to reward yourself for achieving your goal. Mindfulness meditation techniques also can be very helpful in teaching you how to navigate stressful situations and to lessen the weight of the expectations of others.

Some degree of nerves and fear is natural in sales. But, you shouldn’t fear the consequences of success. Or, let the fear of not meeting the expectations of others drive you to act in ways that are not consistent with your abilities or your personality.

 

For more strategies to help you succeed, in sales or whatever you do, listen to Accelerate!, my top-rated podcast, 6 days per week I publish conversations with world-class experts that will help you acquire and retain new customers. Click here to catch up with any of the 340+ episodes I’ve released so far.

The post Are You Afraid of Success? appeared first on Andy Paul | Strategies to Power Growth.

What Salespeople are Doing Wrong on LinkedIn and how to Fix it. With Chris Hamilton. #345

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest Chris Hamilton, Founder of   SalesTipADay.com. Among the many topics that Chris and I discuss are Chris’s lifelong love of sales and marketing, how he decided to use LinkedIn as his sales platform, his upcoming book filled with LinkedIn advice for sales professionals, and tips to improve your sales results using LinkedIn.

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How to Close More Deals with Effective Sales Negotiation. With Ron Hubsher. #344

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest Ron Hubsher, Managing Director of the Sales Optimization Group, and author of Closing Time: The 7 Immutable Laws of Sales Negotiation. Among the many topics that Ron and I discuss are Ron’s background in engineering, how the sales process is like a manufacturing process, how to get more performance from your sales pipeline, and the seven laws of sales negotiation.

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Replay: How to Build a Predictable Pipeline. With Marylou Tyler. #330

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest Marylou Tyler. Marylou is the Founder and CEO of Strategic Pipeline, and coauthor of the classic sales book, Predictable Revenue, which she co-wrote with Aaron Ross. She is also the co-author of a brand new book, Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Pipeline. Among the many topics that Marylou and I discuss are Marylou’s journey from engineer to revenue expert, developing your Ideal Prospect Persona, the Disqualification Engine, and her new methodology you can use to predictably reach new prospects.

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How to Reflect on the End of the Year and a New Start. With Bridget Gleason. #343

Welcome to another Front Line Friday with my remarkable guest, Bridget Gleason. On this week’s episode, Bridget and I discuss, among other topics, Bridget’s exciting new position, what to do about end of the year reflections, things that are really important, and determining what to do better next year.

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Overcoming Adversity to Find Success With Ryan Stewman. #342

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is my guest Ryan Stewman. Ryan is the author of Hard Core [C]loser, and other books, as well as a motivational speaker, consultant, entrepreneur and podcaster. Among the many topics that Ryan and I discuss are the mistakes and challenges he refused to let define him, how to find your inner passion, the core habits of successful salespeople and how to talk with alpha personalities to win the sale.

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