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The Third PR Word
This is the third of a series of four blogs. What did you get from the last blog learning about the PRiorities that your client/customer is trying to satisfy? Our next P R word is….
PRocess
- Where are they in their decision-making process….and how are you going to find out?
- Are they expecting or able to decide today…or will another meeting be necessary to complete this process?
- What do they already know or are using as a measure of comparison?
- How will you ‘forward the sale’ and move …
The Second PR Word
This is the second in a series of four blogs about P R words. What did you gain from the last blog to learn more about the PRoblem that your client/customer is facing? Let’s keep looking at our next P R word….
PRiority
- What matters MOST to them NOW?
- What are the key and essential elements of the problem they are trying to solve or the vision they are trying to realize?
- What are the motivating aspects of this process and decision that is driving them now?
This part of the sales i…
Procrastination
As well as we can plan our time and be vigilant in protecting our time from being unnecessarily taken up by others, there is still a sneaky little gremlin called Procrastination.
Procrastination is sneaky because it looks like taking a break. It looks like being productive when we shift our attention to something that needs attention, but maybe not as much or not right now…especially if it is less important to achieving our goals than what we are currently working on.
It’s good to LOOK for…
Managing Distractions and Interruptions
We can do a fine job of organizing and planning our own actions and involving others when we schedule appointments with them. And even with all that, our best-scheduled actions can be derailed by the actions of others.
Take a look at how your time unfolds. Are your actions taken as you plan them…or do they get pushed back to accommodate the requests of others? Does this happen frequently? Do others interrupt you because you allow or encourage it or because you have a skill that they often nee…
Respecting Time by Making Appointments
As part of organizing actions in time, establish pre-arranged appointment times for when they work best for YOU (scheduled at lower opportunity times for other, harder-to-control actions). Use the repeat feature on your calendar so that you hold those times week after week. When you offer an appointment time that is agreed to, send a calendar invitation that can be accepted and ‘saved for this event only’ from the series…leaving that spot open next week at the same time. Increase the opportuni…
Organizing Actions in Time
“Time Management” is a misnomer because you cannot manage time. You can, however, manage ACTIONS in time.
Begin with your targets – what you WANT to accomplish. And working back from them, identify the actions that need to happen to achieve them. Start small and plan the actions at the best time to execute them and to achieve the result.
Plan a week at a time and support the week with a daily to-do list...but expand your perspective beyond one day…don’t rely on a daily list to manage a week …
New Habits
Now that you have picked an imperfection to work on (and if you haven’t, please do…tardiness is clearly one that can always be addressed if it’s an issue for you), how is it going?
What are the structures you put in place to help you? Did you put alerts on your phone to remind you to do something (practice a new action, get out the door!) or recurring actions in your calendar to start to build a new skill?
Building habits takes intention, prompting, repetition, patience, adjustment…and celebr…
Opportunities for Growth
Imperfections exist, and acknowledging and accepting that fact is helpful in order to move with them and through them.
When we accept them as part of the package, we can own them without defending, excusing, or avoiding…they just are.
From that point, we can expand our view and ask: How is this habit and behavior affecting me? How does it impact others? What do I gain from it and what does it cost me?
And we can choose new actions.
If you are in a sales leadership role, and you have …
Calling After Delivery
In home furnishings retail showrooms, we have done a poor job with this area; it is an industry shortcoming!
We even have a name for this action: a can of worms that shouldn’t be opened. Seriously. We treat it as something to be avoided at all costs.
And yet, I assert that we could raise our revenues by 10-15% with this action ALONE. And to do that, we need to align our expectations with what is likely to happen and upgrade our skill of managing it when it does.
What does that mean?
Ex…
Structures and Support
“I don’t write goals, but I have them in my head.” What??
If you’ve heard yourself say that, challenge its efficacy: DID you really achieve the goal? Did you even have one? Or is that something you say to avoid the responsibility of making a commitment and then taking the actions to achieve the goal?
Some facts about goals:
- You need to write them down. The action of thinking it through and articulating what you want is powerful and part of the process.
- Put your goals somewhere that yo…
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