February Productivity Newsletter 2020

 

Gerry Edtl Sales Tip #3

There Is No Such Thing As A Stranger

You’re a sales professional! You interact with people for a living. If you can see everyone as a friend, or at least an acquaintance, you remove stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety are the #1 killers in the sales arena.

No one is a stranger. We’re all just people. That means you share something in common with everyone. Lean into this truth and use it to reduce any tension you may be feeling about the next interaction you’ll have today.

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Gerry Edtl Sales Tip #4

Stick To Your Schedule

In sales, consistency and dependability are your trump cards. You determine your fate. Your actions directly impact the sales you will or won’t make. Create a schedule that works for you, and stick to it at all costs.

For example, I commit the first 3 hours of my day to sales activity I can control. Each hour is designated to a unique focus. My phone is on silent, my email is closed. I do nothing but that activity at that time.

I do not compromise this time for any reason. If someone wants to speak to me, I schedule them after these first 3 hours. To me, these hours are my golden hours because they result in building my pipeline, moving prospects through my sales funnel, and closing sales.

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Culture Tip: Carnegie Principle #15

Let the other person do a great deal of the talking

Remember an earlier principle: People crave the feeling of importance. Listening is one of the greatest ways to meet this need in your people.

Simon Sinek puts it this way: The quality of a leader cannot be judged by the answers they give but, by the questions they ask.

I challenge you this month to act on this principle. Here is a list of open-ended questions you can use with your employees one-on-one to get you started mastering the art of listening:

• What do you enjoy most about the work you do here?
• What gives you the greatest satisfaction?
• What is most challenging about the work you do here?
• What one thing really drains the life and energy out of you and might make you wonder if you really want to keep working here?
• Thinking about the last week or two, what was your greatest win? What about that is so meaningful to you?
• If I could do one thing this week to help you, what would that be?
• Is there anything happening in your life and world that you’d like to talk about with me?

Remember to probe after each of these questions to allow the other person to really talk. Probing prompts to use could be:

• Tell me more about that
• And…?
• What is causing that?
• Why is that?
• What else?

Pick one question from the open-ended category. Ask each of your employees this one question 1:1. Probe. When you’ve finished, pick another question and repeat.

Micro improvements compound to life-altering transformations. You can do it! Your people need you to do this for them.

Resources

The Sandler Rules, David Mattson
How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie