Becoming Smarter in Four Steps - Part Two

Author's Note: This is the second in a two part series. If you haven't read part one, yet, skip down and read it before continuing with this post.

The art of working smarter instead of harder is not just fashionable, it is necessary. With traffic congestion and family commitments and the critical nature of a work/life balance, sales people no longer have the option of just putting in longer and longer hours in order to succeed.

In the last post, we discussed the first two steps in a four step process of becoming a smarter seller. This post covers the last two steps:

Step Three - Becoming Disciplined

Now that you are becoming a smart seller, you have identified your ideal customer and are using this profile to discover the best prospects. You have built your pipeline and structured it into four columns (for a refresher, read the post entitled Becoming Smarter in Four Steps - Part One).

Maintaining the system that you have developed requires that you become disciplined about your time and effort. Becoming disciplined is a process and requires that you break habits and make new ones. Do this:

1) At the beginning of every day, take a look at Column 1 and determine which of those customers could be turned into revenue on that day. Perhaps, you have proposals out to several customers and today is the day to call them and finalize the deal. Or, maybe your particular sales cycle is very short and doesn't require lead time. In that case, which of these Column 1 customers is "due" to be closed again. Depending on what you sell, some customers could have used all of their product or they could be near the end of a subscription. If you can find out by using your own tracking software that's great. If you need to speak to the customer, then you know that you'll be calling them today.

2) Now that you've identified who you will be contacting from Column 1, you need to craft a reason for contacting them. A legitimate business reason. Your reason is that you want them to buy something but that isn't a very good reason from the customer's point of view. Imagine that you were eating dinner at home and the phone rang. Seeing that the call was from your local Audi dealership, you answer it because you own an Audi and take it to the dealership for service.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Rohrer, it's Jim from Sunshine Audi over on Highway 11, how are you?"

"Fine, Jim."

"Mr. Rohrer, the reason for the call is to see if you would like to buy a new Audi today. We have lots of terrific models from which to choose and we are having a special."

"You're calling to see if I want to buy a new car today?"

"Yes, sir! Today would be a great day to take advantage of huge savings!"

From the seller's perspective, he has a good reason to call but from my perspective it's just odd. If Jim was a little more disciplined and spent some time crafting his message he may have come up with this:

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Rohrer, it's Jim from Sunshine Audi. Three years ago this week, we had the privilege of delivering a brand, new Audi A4 to you."

"Has it been three years already?"

"Yes, sir. The reason for my call is not to celebrate the anniversary of your car, though. It's to let you know that Sunshine Audi is looking for A4's. There is a pretty strong demand for used A4's - especially the six-cylinder versions like yours."

"You don't say."

"Yes, sir. So, in order to acquire '04 and '05 A4's we are calling our customers who own them and offering them a special incentive to trade their cars in on brand new '08 A4's or other Audi models."

"What's the special?"

Clearly, this is a far more productive conversation for the seller because he has presented the customer/prospect with a legitimate business reason for initiating the call.

3) After you've made the list of Column 1 customers that you are contacting today and crafted a message you need to make the calls and send the e-mails. By the time you are finished you will have a list of assignments that can be prioritized according to urgency and importance. After you have done that you are ready to move on.

4) Look at Column 2 prospects and identify the order in which you are going to contact them. For each, do some research so that when you reach the decision maker you are able to have a reasonably intelligent conversation about her business. Craft a legitimate business reason for calling or contacting and start making it happen. As you progress through the list you will be able to prioritize your assignments according to urgency and importance.

Step 4 - Staying Focused

By now, you are probably feeling pretty smart and you should be! You have a plan and you are becoming disciplined about sticking with it. Now, you need to make your new discipline a habit and that will require focus. Focus is all about eliminating or ignoring distractions that take you away from the disciplined steps you require to achieve your goals. Distractions can come from many places:

1) Your personal life. Set aside a few minutes every morning and every afternoon to check in with the wife, husband, daycare, mechanic, etc. Other than those times, ignore your cell phone. Do not engage in instant messaging with these folks. Commit to doing the work that is required to achieve your goals.

2) Management. You might be in a rhythm when your sales manager asks to see you in the office. By all means, go but do not allow this impromptu meeting to last longer than five minutes or so. Perhaps, the sales manager would like to review your pipeline or some other legitimate function. Set up a time to do this in the future - preferably at the very beginning of the day. Ask for the meeting to be on the same day and time each week or every other week. Explain about your sense of purpose and your need to be focused. A good sales manager will want you to be doing what you are doing and will adjust accordingly.

3) Co-workers. Socializing with the co-workers is fun and one of the reasons that people enjoy work. Do it at lunch. Let everyone know that you can shoot the breeze from 7:30a-7:45a and then again at lunch. Don't commit to being on the party committee or anything else that can't be done before work or at lunch.

You'll want to share your goals with the people around you so that they can help you stay focused and disciplined. No need to just brush these people aside - especially if you were a part of the social circle before.

So, there you have it. A lot more can be said about these steps and specific types of selling may require some revisions. Working smarter should always be the goal because smarter is better than harder. Plus, if you need to work harder and you're already working smarter, imagine how much more productive those extra hours will be!