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August 17 - September 18, 2022
But by having a plan to overcome it, these patients could mentally power through the difficulties, knowing they had a safety net in place. As a result, they were two to three times more effective than the group that had no plan.
Procrastination actually drains your energy reservoir because you are using constructive energy to think about how you don’t want to do something, instead of using that energy to actually execute.
If you picture the brain as an onion composed of layers and layers of cells, the ones toward the outside, nearest to the scalp, are more responsible for the complex thinking required, for example, to process new information, laugh at a joke, or engage creative thinking.
If we go deeper inside the brain closer to the brain stem—where the brain meets the spinal column—is where we find the primitive structures that control our automatic behaviors such as breathing and swallowing.
Having a predetermined schedule and plan allowed me to take the guesswork out of what to do and spend my energy executing important, intentional tasks.
IS PROCRASTINATION STEALING YOUR EFFICIENCY?
I also realized during my personal evaluation that we likely spend more time procrastinating than it would take to simply complete the task at hand.
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy!” –Dale Carnegie
Just to recap, when we take thinking and deciding out of the equation and we can follow a predetermined path, we use less energy.
This leaves us more time executing intentional, high-return tasks instead of wasting energy dreading them or trying to figure out what we’re doing in the midst of it all.
"REMEMBER, THE GOAL IS ALWAYS TO BE CONSISTENTLY GOOD INSTEAD OF OCCASIONALLY AWESOME. WHEN WE ARE “GOOD” CONTINUOUSLY FOR LONG ENOUGH, THEN EXCELLENCE AND LONG-TERM EXCELLENCE IS A BYPRODUCT." -MIRANDA MARTIN
Write this down: Trainees can ALWAYS see right thru an unplanned training.
“LUCK IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY.” ~SENECA
INTENTIONALITY “PROCRASTINATION” CHALLENGE #4 I challenge you to do something really brave right now. Are you up for it? I want you to pick something right now that you have been procrastinating on or dread doing.
How long on average do you normally spend thinking about how you don’t want to do this? Now go ahead, do that dreaded task and record how long it actually takes to do: ___________________________________________ Share your experiment on The Ultimate Sales Training Success Facebook Community page. #ProcrastinationChallenge
GETDEALS Training Success Outline “G” stands for “Goal.” “E” stands for “Edify.” “T” stands for “Tell.” “D” represents “Demonstrate then Discuss.” “E” stands for “Exercise.” “A” stands for “Assessment.” “L” stands for “Learn.” “S” reminds the trainer to “Set Expectations.” ~Miranda Martin
“Success is about doing the right things, not about doing everything right.” —Gary Keller
A Chinese proverb says, “A journey of 1000 miles must begin with a single step.”
When you start training: Do you have a clear destination in mind for the training? Is it set in the GPS? In other words, do you have a clear objective for your learners?
Action without intention is a waste of everyone’s time.
Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.
Establishing the goal of the training is the first step of the GETDEALS process. Goal is the “G” in the GETDEALS process.
When you figure out how much information these new trainees will be able to handle effectively, it will help you diagnose at the highest level how to intentionally execute your training sessions.
“If it’s left untreated in the short-term memory, it begins to disappear almost immediately and is gone in somewhere between 10 - 15 seconds. Short-term memory is like a buffer zone. It fills up rapidly and then quickly empties.” —Harold D. Stolovitch, Telling Ain’t Training
The newer the material is to the trainee, the more energy their brain will use to process that information and the less of it their brain will be able to hold at one time.
It’s been said for a long time that the brain can hold 5 - 9 “chunks” of information at a time (e.g., our brain chunks phone numbers into three groups for easy recollection: area code, prefix, and four-digit house number.)
The more familiar the learner is with the material, the more they may be able to handle.
The goal is singular—one topic for every half-hour session.
Gary Keller, the author of The One Thing, says, “Until my ONE thing is done – everything else is a distraction.”
CRYSTALIZING YOUR GOAL, MISSION OR PURPOSE In the sales employee development space, there are three primary areas to train on and it’s wise to cover a healthy balance of all three: Attitudes (Proper/Positive attitude to win) Belief (In what one is selling/serving or self-belief) Skills (How to develop a skill)
Attitudes can be transformed over time through training sessions in as simple of an activity as reading a personal development book together.
When my former company brought on new sales people and call center employees, the new employees would of course, need to memorize their scripts, but they were also tasked with reading two chapters per night and highlighting the parts that inspired them.
In the morning, as a group, we would examine the assigned chapters. As the trainer, I would have several predetermined stories and takeaways prepared from the reading and ask open-ended questions to test the knowledge and to make sure the reading was indeed complete.
In this chapter, Excusitis is identified in four sub-categories: Luck, Health, Age, Intelligence. The main goal when training on this chapter is to eliminate outward negative self-talk and to preventatively squash these four excuses that may lurk in the learners’ minds about their ability to succeed.
When you design your training, make sure you include a balance of motivational inspiration to inform their attitude as often as you include skill development as a topic.
Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish (or don’t accomplish) in life. For someone to be wildly successful, they must follow their heart, not just a paycheck. If someone truly loves what they do, they will be successful. Passion is created when deep belief is born.
They’d never looked at their situation the way I had painted it, and I’d helped open their eyes.
gave me the utmost inspiration to see what I was doing as something so much bigger than “setting a sales appointment,” or, “having to make a sale.”
There are three things you need to consider prior to selecting the topic for your training: Active, Conversations, and Evidence/Facts—ACEs for short. The more ACEs you can use to support your selection of a training topic, the more relevant your training will be to your trainee.
A IS FOR ACTIVE
The best way to get real-life topics to train on is to observe the trainees live in action. There are two sides to this. The trainee is live in action, and so are you, the trainer. THE TRAINEE: Will be live with a client on the phone or in person. YOU: You are fully present, discreetly listening and watching.
Either way, active feedback is always helpful feedback.
Have an Active Note-Taking System
Another common pitfall is usually found in what I consider “weak language,” which is any language opposite from assuming the sale.
If you are in customer service, asking the customer “Would you like to do _______?” This is part of being friendly. If you ask the same question in a sales environment, it could sound like the trainee is unsure if the customer should move forward with the purchase. Instead, use verbiage like “Would you like to use a debit card or credit card for your purchase?” This is more assumptive.
One of my other favorite ways to train from these skill review sessions is to review a recording of the performance with the trainee. When the trainee can observe their own behavior, this allows them to face reality.
Always get a sample of three recordings of the issue at hand to compare.
Even better, when you conduct these reviews for multiple trainees, you’ll often unearth systemic difficulties that can be addressed in a group session.
C IS FOR CONVERSATIONS.
When you’ve gathered enough evidence to point to group-wide trends, you’ll have plenty of topics for your group training sessions.
