from Art Sobczak:
This Week:
What Avoidance Behavior is Holding You Back?
Greetings!
Picture the sales rep who spends two prime hours
every day online, and reading trade journals,
the Wall Street Journal, and more, "so he can be
well-versed, just in case someone asks questions."
And the rep who feels obligated to assume
ownership of all minuscule customer service
situations--ones easily delegated--because she
wants to be certain they're handled correctly.
And her call productivity suffers as a result.
Or, the salesperson who is always fixated on
one "big deal" devoting tons of time--at the
expense of placing other calls--working on the
proposal.
Know anyone like these people?
ARE you one of these people?
If so, you are flat out avoiding something.
And probably denying it.
There are all kinds of avoidance behaviors.
Whenever I get particularly ambitious around the
house...tightening things, replacing filters,
(by the way, I'm the most un-Home Depot
guy in the history of males) it is a sure sign
I should be parked in front of a computer,
preparing for a training program or writing articles.
What non-sales activities do you engage in that
steal from your productive selling time?
Or, what call behaviors do you practice that are
not as effective as what you should do?
For example, some reps insist on just asking a
few questions during a first call, "touching base"
on a second call, then phoning a few more times
before finally getting into the meat of selling.
They rationalize that they're building a relationship.
Bull. They're constructing a fat follow-up file.
Sure they're busy, but it's like running on a treadmill.
Lots of sweat, but no forward progress. Oh, but they're
building "relationships." Not so much.
Here's one way to deal with avoidance behavior.
1. Make a commitment to improve. If you don't have
that "want to," read no further.
2. Pinpoint what you know you should do, but
don't, or don't do it often enough.
3. Identify the activity or behavior that you
rationalize as important, but deep down you know
it's a mask. This is where you need to be brutally
honest with yourself.
4. Determine what activity or behavior you will
replace it with. For example, calling higher in an
organization, asking for the bigger sale earlier,
sending out fewer proposals to only the more highly
qualified prospects, or spending less time internally
chasing down answers to questions
and delegating more instead.
5. Set specific, quantifiable, time-sensitive goals.
Write them out. Any time is a great time to start,
especially as we approach the new year.
6. Take action. Track your progress.
7. Reward yourself! What gets rewarded gets repeated.
It's not rocket surgery (just heard that term the other day...
pretty funny, I thought). Most worthwhile things aren't.
They just require effort.
So why wait? Don't avoid it any longer. Take some action,
any action right now that you've been avoiding. You'll
be glad you did.
______________________________
Continue Having Your Best Week Ever!
Art
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people
being afraid to go straight at things."
William J. Lock
Contact: Art Sobczak, President, Business By Phone Inc. 13254 Stevens St.,
Omaha, NE 68137, (402) 895-9399. Or, email:arts@businessbyphone.com
Sphere: Related Content
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment