Salesopedia - Distracted? Don’t Let It Impact Your Sales

Distracted? Don’t Let It Impact Your Sales

Written by Josiane Feigon

Recently, one of my clients experienced a drastic stock drop. The news hit hard, and speculation and fear circulated among the ranks.

The executives called a meeting of the entire sales organization. They knew that their salespeople would have to deal with questions from both internal and external customers. And they wanted to ensure that their message was conveyed in the best possible way.

As usual, it was up to salespeople to carry the day—to be strong, clear, and bold in the trenches as they fielded inquiries from all sides. But at some point, these inquiries turned into distractions.

How much time do your salespeople spend on self-generated interruptions—when they could be generating revenue?

Break It Down
Distractions fall into two categories:

•    Company-Generated Interruptions, which are imposed externally
•    Self-Generated Interruptions, which are created by the team

                    Company-Generated                                                Self-Generated

All-Hands Meeting to Discuss Recent Stock Drop	Talking about it, speculating about the rumors, buying or selling your stock, calming or alarming customers.
Weekly Sales Meetings	Losing focus, which requires you to reprioritize
Reading Daily Emails and Announcements	Surfing, IMing, writing personal emails, stock shopping
New Forecasting, Activity, and Pipeline Reports	Complaining that your role is not an admin, procrastinating on the reports
Changes to the Comp Plan	Blaming your manager, threatening not to sign the plan, comparing notes with others
Escalation Issues Requiring You to Call Internally to Other Departments	Reacting to the urgent, not being time-efficient

So how can you get your team back on track? You can’t control company-generated distractions, but you can control how your people deal with them—which means eliminating self-generated distractions.

We talked to managers about what they do to keep their teams on a sales track and focused, whether at the beginning or the end of their quarter. Here are the five best strategies:

1.    “I have breakfast and lunch brought in for my team during the final week of the quarter.”
2.    “We have daily forecasting sessions to review where they are and how to move it along faster.”
3.    “I invite one of our best customers to speak with the group about what is working with our products/ solutions.”
4.    “I design contests and incentives to help my team through a very long selling cycle. The rewards kick in once they’re more advanced in the cycle.”
5.    “I make the confidence rounds each week by reminding my reps of their strengths.”

We talked to team members about the proactive tasks they do to keep themselves motivated and on-track. Here are the ten best strategies:

1.    “I set 2-hours of non-negotiable calling time every day.”
2.    “I learn new skills such through taking on-line webinars.”
3.    “I coordinate a team meeting to air some thoughts and practice strong customer come-backs to potential objections.”
4.    “I take the time to clean and prioritize my contact management tool.”
5.    “I do more marketing to new audiences, new verticals and talk about other products.”

So what happened to my client facing the dramatic stock drop?

They viewed their crisis as an opportunity—and immediately got on task. They streamlined their selling efforts, dedicating solid blocks of non-negotiable time to calls each day. They took one break every morning for a 15-minute power-meeting in which everyone shared successes and offered suggestions on stuck accounts. They charted sales wins on a white board over the water cooler, and they offered daily rewards for the team member with the highest numbers.

Within days, their pipeline had expanded, offering inspiration to keep going. Within weeks, they had landed key accounts and were turning the tables on the hand that the market had dealt them. Eventually, their sales completely turned around—and the price of their stock reflected it!

Josiane Feigon
		About the author:
		Josiane Feigon is a pioneer, maverick and visionary in the Sales 2.0 community. As President and Founder of TeleSmart, Josiane is a 20-year veteran and one of the world’s leading experts on developing sales teams and management talent. She provides consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies whose global Sales organizations range from 20-800 salespeople. Clients such as Agilent, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Genesys, Harte-Hanks, HP, Mercury, Microsoft, Oracle and Verisign consider her an invaluable part of their sales strategies. Visit her website at www.tele-smart.com or email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Be sure to check out her Life in the Telebusiness Trenches blog .
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