As a sales professional, sales leader or business owner, distractions
can often be the main obstacle for achieving great success.
If you have too many distractions, you will never achieve your full potential.
It is important to continue to evaluate what sales activities will be most important to reach your goals. Then, you must focus on those activities first, and make a commitment to complete them each and every day without failure.
You must remove and minimize your distractions. You will then have the time to focus on what you have determined is most important.
Here are some tips on how to minimize common distractions:
Limit your number of social networks. Determine which social networking sites are most valuable to you. You may be a member of multiple forums, on line groups, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and will be invited to join other networks as well. Pick a couple that are most helpful for you and drop the rest.
Do not log into social networking sites while you are working. Save social networking for times when you are not at work. Consider how much time is wasted each day on social networking sites. How much time are you wasting?
Block time to check your email. When you are working on a task, focus on the task. Emails constantly flying into your inbox can be a constant distraction. Schedule specific times during the day to read and send emails.
Clean out your inbox. Respond to your emails, delete them, or file them, but don't let them sit in your inbox where they can be a distraction.
Send fewer, shorter emails. Also, don’t become dependent on emailing versus picking up the phone. There is value in the personal touch.
Shut off notifications. Are you constantly getting pinged with an email, or tweet, or text or IM? When are you actually focused and present in the moment? Don’t forget that the most important time you have is right now. Consider at times completely shutting off your computer or turning off your smartphone.
Close your door. If you have an office with a door, consider at times closing it to focus on what you need to get done to reduce the risk of random and unscheduled visits that will disrupt your work flow. If you don't have an office with a door and are in a more open environment, and you are approached, you can simply say that you have to get back to work. Don't get sucked into long chats unrelated to what you need to get done. Save those for after work.
Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop and your entire work area, office space, and home office.
Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive. Think quality and effectiveness over quantity.
Do not take personal calls during work. Can the call wait until later? If so, don't make it, or ask to speak with the person calling you after work.
Do the tough stuff first. Get the hardest things done first. It increases the odds of you getting them completed, and reduces possible excuses.
Have a cut off time. Make sure you have set times to complete your activities as well as set times to stop working. Have you ever planned a trip where you left work early at 12:00 noon? Remember how much you got done before 12:00 noon because you knew you had to leave early that day? Exactly.
The next step is to put each of these items into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Go through each item and integrate the changes into how you are working today.
Next, take 5 minutes and brainstorm all other distractions that you have right now. Go through each item and determine what you need to do to eliminate the distraction.
It is important to note, that this is an on-going process that you should continue to revisit since new distractions may appear. By minimizing my own distractions, I was able to be a #1 sales performer within multiple fortune 500 organizations and created plenty of time for dollar productive activities. Now, as a sales coach, I help support my sales coaching clients achieve similar success by providing specific solutions to challenges that are holding them back from extraordinary results.
by Jeremy J. Ulmer
www.salesopedia.com
If you have too many distractions, you will never achieve your full potential.
It is important to continue to evaluate what sales activities will be most important to reach your goals. Then, you must focus on those activities first, and make a commitment to complete them each and every day without failure.
You must remove and minimize your distractions. You will then have the time to focus on what you have determined is most important.
Here are some tips on how to minimize common distractions:
Limit your number of social networks. Determine which social networking sites are most valuable to you. You may be a member of multiple forums, on line groups, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and will be invited to join other networks as well. Pick a couple that are most helpful for you and drop the rest.
Do not log into social networking sites while you are working. Save social networking for times when you are not at work. Consider how much time is wasted each day on social networking sites. How much time are you wasting?
Block time to check your email. When you are working on a task, focus on the task. Emails constantly flying into your inbox can be a constant distraction. Schedule specific times during the day to read and send emails.
Clean out your inbox. Respond to your emails, delete them, or file them, but don't let them sit in your inbox where they can be a distraction.
Send fewer, shorter emails. Also, don’t become dependent on emailing versus picking up the phone. There is value in the personal touch.
Shut off notifications. Are you constantly getting pinged with an email, or tweet, or text or IM? When are you actually focused and present in the moment? Don’t forget that the most important time you have is right now. Consider at times completely shutting off your computer or turning off your smartphone.
Close your door. If you have an office with a door, consider at times closing it to focus on what you need to get done to reduce the risk of random and unscheduled visits that will disrupt your work flow. If you don't have an office with a door and are in a more open environment, and you are approached, you can simply say that you have to get back to work. Don't get sucked into long chats unrelated to what you need to get done. Save those for after work.
Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop and your entire work area, office space, and home office.
Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive. Think quality and effectiveness over quantity.
Do not take personal calls during work. Can the call wait until later? If so, don't make it, or ask to speak with the person calling you after work.
Do the tough stuff first. Get the hardest things done first. It increases the odds of you getting them completed, and reduces possible excuses.
Have a cut off time. Make sure you have set times to complete your activities as well as set times to stop working. Have you ever planned a trip where you left work early at 12:00 noon? Remember how much you got done before 12:00 noon because you knew you had to leave early that day? Exactly.
The next step is to put each of these items into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Go through each item and integrate the changes into how you are working today.
Next, take 5 minutes and brainstorm all other distractions that you have right now. Go through each item and determine what you need to do to eliminate the distraction.
It is important to note, that this is an on-going process that you should continue to revisit since new distractions may appear. By minimizing my own distractions, I was able to be a #1 sales performer within multiple fortune 500 organizations and created plenty of time for dollar productive activities. Now, as a sales coach, I help support my sales coaching clients achieve similar success by providing specific solutions to challenges that are holding them back from extraordinary results.
by Jeremy J. Ulmer
www.salesopedia.com
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