Concentrate on what’s vital.
If you ever get the urge to jump on a sport bike and hit the track, I suggest you first give Keith Code a call. He’s the founder of the California Superbike School and I spent a few days with Keith and was impressed with both his racing skills and his intuitive sales skills.
To Keith, it’s not just about the bike or speed; it’s about every nuance of skill and tools scientifically put together in the right sequence. Does his equation sound familiar… like a sales and CRM automation process?
Beyond satisfying the need for speed, Keith begins a valuable part of his training with illustrating the cost of distractions. He literally paints a picture of what they cost i.e. looking at a crack in the pavement is a buck, glancing over at a tree is a fiver and so on. The point here is when you have used up the distraction budget you are headed for trouble (often instant and serious). The skill a rider must develop, just like a skilled sales person or manager, is the ability to concentrate on what’s vital and ignore the innumerable distractions along the way… and stay out of trouble too boot!
Distractions mean significantly less and less time to sell.
Some things about modern business and management mean an inescapable duty to others in the organization but there is a limit to how much you can afford. Even the best run organizations place a plethora of non selling activities in front of their sales staff every day: emails, news bulletins, information requests, training programs, update programs, report needs and the list goes on and on. It’s not to say that these are trivial. What I am saying is how much can you afford?
Get rid of distractions. They’re efficiency killers.
Pay attention too to your own distractions. You know, those pesky habits, like smoking or idle chatting on the phone, surfing social media networks…the ones that burn a lot of time and take your eye off the game.
Your credit card has been declined.
Start counting every nuisance interruption, unneeded telephone call, face time meeting, report making session, email and a host of other time greedy actions. Now establish a credit card for these, let’s say a $1000, which represents your ability to spend your resources on activities that interfere with your making a living.
Now assign a dollar value to each of your top ten distractions. Now it gets interesting. What is it going to cost say for a ‘no value add meeting’ or a mind numbing report and another general email information request? Really stupid questions are at least $25 and incredibly stupid questions that require you to call a meeting are a minimum of $100. When you get to your card limit stop and tell everyone that you have your distractions credit card has declined their request.
There is a limit to how much distraction you can stand.
How do you prepare a distraction budget? Managers take heed: make yourself a budget. Put a dollar figure together with a value of how much it costs every time you send, ask or review something with your team. Stop once you have used up your budget.
It sounds simple but in reality it’s very difficult to do. How much will Human Resources be allowed, Marketing, Credit, Training, and so on receive? How much is enough? Is some interruption worth more or less than others? Whatever the result, manage the amount, peg a realistic value and then stop when you have used up your budget.
MosaicCRM Expert Tips
“My team can’t find enough time for selling!”
I hear it all the time. A MosaicCRM hallmark is our ability to minimize technology distractions that interfere with your strategic business focus. Our exclusive CRM planning, set up, implementation and ongoing management programs make sure that you are focusing on solution not high tech gizmos that only complicate matters.
Here are a few areas where we can help:
- Design automation to minimize administrative task load (often 40-50% of total workload)
- Define strategic selling activities, then automate them to how your sales force will use them
- Automated customer nurturing systems for improved retention
- Automated Lead tracking, distribution and nurturing systems
- Intelligent social media program development and management
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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM
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