Article Contributed by Sharpenz
What could golf possibly have to do with increasing your sales? Well, my golf game the other day gave me a wake up call to increasing sales that can apply to everyone in the field, golfer or not. It’s all about process.
After many lessons –and practice – over the past five years, I have my handicap down to a 13. But today I started off poorly and had a 50 stroke score at the end of the front 9 holes. This is 7 strokes higher than my average! For the competitive person that I am, I felt as if I was failing, not living up to my potential and more concerned that I’d repeat that performance on the back 9.
I decided to assess the situation and my results. For some reason, I felt uncomfortable over the ball and was having difficulty focusing. I knew I had to slow down, relax and think about as few things as possible. More importantly I had to think about the process that works for me – focus and basics. Picking my target, the proper stance, shifting my weight, and following through.
I turned to my partner said, “I need to shoot a 40.” And I did exactly that.
So how exactly does this relate to sales? In sales when we’ve lost our groove and too many clients are saying “no,” we can take ourselves down into a dangerous funk. Each customer contact comes up in the loss column and we may feel like we can’t get out of our own way. And slowly we see our sales tanking.
The best thing we can do for ourselves is stop and ask, When I was successful, what was I doing? What was my process that worked? What was making the difference for me to increase sales? Was it that I was taking 5 to 20 minutes before each call to prepare? Did I write out the objective of the upcoming sales call? Did I formulate the questions I needed to ask to accomplish the objective? It may be that simple: slow down, take a breath and go back to the process that worked for you before.
As a manager, when you see any of your seller’s loosing their edge it’s a coaching opportunity. Take the time to regroup, help them remember past successes and reflect on the process the followed for their successes and a focused plan.
What’s your process that gets your back 9 to count to increase your sales?
About the Author:
Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to motivate and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster programs help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz’ ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power. To learn more, visit www.Sharpenz.com and sign up for your free sales training kit today!
