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.
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.
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.
Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop.
Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive.
Do the tough stuff first.
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 these items into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Also, consider making a list of all other distractions you may have.
By minimizing my own distractions, I was able to be a #1 sales performer within multiple fortune 500 organizations. 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.
About the Author:
Sales Coaching Expert, Jeremy J. Ulmer, has helped hundreds of sales professionals, sales leaders, businesses and entrepreneurs overcome sales challenges to achieve breakthrough results. Jeremy has been ranked a #1 sales performer in the U.S. for 4 years at two Global Fortune 500 Companies, is the former Director of Sales at the #1 Outsourced Sales Company in the U.S., and is a Featured Presenter on Sales Skills and Entrepreneurship at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. If you are ready to dramatically increase your sales results then subscribe for your Free Tips or Request a Free Coaching Consultation at: http://www.CoachWithJeremy.com/
