Mark Jewell's Blog: Selling Energy, page 266

Tips to Beat Procrastination

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I’m always on the lookout for new ways to increase productivity. The ability to manage tasks and maximize productivity is essential for an effective sales professional. However, we trick ourselves, put off tasks for later and procrastinate. This practice leads to increased stress, decreased work quality and burnout. 

FastCompany published a great article of “5 Pro Tips to Beat Procrastination Every Time.”  If you find yourself procrastinating, I highly recommend reading this article and considering the suggested remedies.

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How Successful People Handle Emails Effectively

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To-do lists are great, but if you know you can complete a task very quickly it’s usually best to do it right away and be done with it. The same principle can be applied to emails. Most of us get too many emails each day to respond to all of them immediately. It follows that we should respond right away to the ones that we know will only take a minute or two of our time, and save the more time-intensive ones for later (unless they’re very urgent, of course).

 

I found a great article published on the LifeHack with seven key skills to effectively manage your daily inbox. Consider using these successful people’s tips to speed up your email routine.

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Are Brochures Effective?

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How often do brochures make prospects fall in love with efficiency? What would you say if I told you that more often than not, brochures get in the way of an effective conversation with your prospect? Why? Because in most cases the marketing department is totally out of sync with the sales department in terms of what should be included in those brochures in the first place. 

Ask yourself… Are your marketing and sales departments – in fact, is your entire organization – capable of resonating at the frequency of your prospect?  Has anyone in your organization taken the time to develop a genuinely nuanced understanding of how efficiency resonates with that prospect’s reality at the four distinct levels that matter:  the segment, the industry, the organization, and the prospect’s own role within that organization?  

Do your brochures contain any mention of how efficiency is going produce benefits that are meaningful at each of those four levels?  If not, I would respectfully suggest that your brochures are not worth printing, much less introducing into a conversation with your prospect. 

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Project Barriers

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There are countless reasons that a proposed efficiency project might not be approved. Rather than trying to predict which objections might surface during the approval process, ask your prospect to provide you insight by asking a simple question like, “What barriers have you faced in getting your projects approved in the past?” 

Assuming your prospect has been with the company long enough to have witnessed a project or two pass through the approval process, they will likely possess some inside information that will help you preemptively neutralize objections before they even surface. Perhaps they didn’t have enough staff to manage the last project. Perhaps they had a negative experience with an efficiency project. Perhaps they lacked reliable information on the specific efficiency measure being proposed. Perhaps they lacked funding for the engineering and/or the implementation. Whatever the reason may be, give yourself a leg up on the competition by discovering it ahead of time. 

If your prospect doesn’t know what barriers prevented projects from being approved in the past, feel free to suggest some common ones to jumpstart the conversation. They may end up giving you insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the organization that they otherwise would not have thought to mention.

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4 Things You Can Learn From Stand-Up Comedians

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As efficiency sales professionals, we are frequently required to give presentations and master the art of public speaking. I’ve written blogs about how to prepare for a winning presentation because it’s both challenging and vital to our success as successful sales professionals. Public speaking takes practice and finesse. 

If you are at all uncomfortable speaking in public or giving presentations (or if you just want to improve your abilities), I highly recommend reading a recent article by Lifehack on how stand-up comedians captivate an audience, enough to make an entire audience laugh for hours. This article offers some great insights into engaging an audience with emotions, body language and speech structure. Give it a read and apply a few in your next presentation!

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12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

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The best sales professionals are sharp and can think quickly on their feet. They keep a healthy mind and body so that they’re in tip-top shape when it really matters. Understanding the inner workings of how your brain functions can affect how you choose to use it – and whether or not you end up using it to its fullest potential.

 

One of the books that I recommend at every Efficiency Sales Professional Boot Camp is Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, by John Medina. Sales professionalism is a lifestyle, and this book explores how your choices and habits can affect the functionality of your most valuable asset.

 

Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:

 

“See how the brain works while using it in the process of reading this book! Most of us have no idea what's really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know - like that physical activity boosts your brain power.

How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget - and so important to repeat new information? Is it true that men and women have different brains?

In Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule - what scientists know for sure about how our brains work - and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.

Medina's fascinating stories and sense of humor breathe life into brain science. You'll learn why Michael Jordan was no good at baseball. You'll peer over a surgeon's shoulder as he proves that we have a Jennifer Aniston neuron. You'll meet a boy who has an amazing memory for music but can't tie his own shoes.”

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Weekly Recap, July 31, 2016

 



  
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Monday: Read the book Selling to Big Companies, by Jill Konrath, if you are struggling to get your foot in the door of big companies. 


Tuesday: Read how people who are busy end up with more brain power.  


Wednesday:  Check out a couple reasons why free audits don't work. 


Thursday: Two things that people often avoid when they're too busy. 


Friday: Five-minute routine that'll replace your afternoon coffee. 


Saturday: Check out this article from Lifehack on "10 ways to remove the distractions that keep you from doing the best at work". 

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10 Ways to Remove Distractions

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There are a wide variety of things that can derail your productivity, but one of the biggest and most common culprits is distractions. Staying focused on the task at hand is not always easy, particularly if it’s mundane work that you’d rather not be doing in the first place. 

LifeHacker published a blog with 10 strategies for staying focused and avoiding distractions. I like all of their suggestions, but my favorites are: setting time slots for tasks and going the extra mile. Read the full list here and consider giving some of them a try next week at work.

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A 5-minute Routine That'll Replace Your Afternoon Coffee

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Our energy level and cognitive ability vary throughout the course of any given workday depending on a number of factors (e.g., how much sleep we got, when and what we ate, how much we exercised, how much caffeine we consumed, etc.). Most people turn to a cup of coffee for a boost, but for those of you who would rather not rely on caffeine for a second (or first) wind, consider trying a quick, high-intensity workout instead. 

According to an article published on the Hubspot blog, a five-minute process of the power position, pushups and meditation may produce the same energy-boosting results as a cup o’ Joe. Many studies have correlated exercise and energy level. Consider giving this method a try at work… Who knows, maybe you don’t need as much caffeine as you think! 

On a related note, I remember reading a while ago that the reason that folks crave their coffee in the morning is that they’re actually dehydrated from a long night’s sleep. Try drinking two glasses of water immediately upon wakening. I’ve heard the practice compared to placing a wilted flower in a glass of water and watching it straighten right up!

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Be Prepared and Think Ahead

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When business is booming and you don’t have much free time on your hands, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to plan ahead for the future. I can tell you with confidence that the most successful people in this world find a way to dig their wells before they’re thirsty, even when they’re very preoccupied with the present. 

So what kind of planning should you be doing to secure your future success? The two things that people often avoid when they’re too busy are prospecting and self-improvement. 

Prospecting: “I’ve got too much work on my plate to be out networking and generating new leads.” Does this sound familiar? Even when you have more business than you can handle, it’s crucial that you set aside some time to seek out new prospects, especially if your sales cycle is long. Just because you’re having a successful month or year doesn’t mean the pattern will continue indefinitely. 

Self-improvement: A lot of people think that they don’t have time to read sales information or improve their skills because they’re “too busy making their numbers.” Don’t fall into the trap of complacency. Schedule some time each day or each week for self-improvement. Read self-help sales training books and blogs, take a professional sales training course, find new ways to increase your productivity. There are dozens of ways to improve your skills; you just need to motivate yourself to continue growing and improving.

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