He Who Chases After Two Rabbits, Loses Both

He who chases after two rabbits, loses both – Chinese Proverb
 
Remember when you played with a magnifying glass (probably more a guy thing) and tried to light up everything in your path. You’ll have noticed that when you focussed the sun’s rays on one spot, you got enough energy to start a fire. Of course, when you moved the magnifying glass all over the show, nothing happened.
 
The same is true for those of us in sales. When we focus our energy on result-producingactivities … guess what we get? We get results, of course. However, when we’re flitting around like a fly on speed we do not create enough energy to be able to achieve something worthwhile.
 
If you can concentrate your energy on one thing at a time, you will create miracles. So, how does one do it?
 
Simple. Be in the moment 100%. Your focus must be like a laser beam so that you can cut to the essence of what you are trying to achieve.
 
One of the best ways I’ve found that helps keep one’s focus is to chunk.
 
Chunking means that you allocate yourself blocks of time to undertake result-producing activities.
 
Prospecting
 
Let’s take prospecting, for example. You cannot hope to be successful in getting appointments over the phone if your focus is diluted. You know what I mean (let’s be honest, we all do it) – whilst you’re phoning, you’re busy typing something arcane on word, you’re reading email or worse browsing the web (the Satan-spawn of time-wasting), slurping your coffee. Hey, if you’re supposed to be phoning prospects and clients now and reading this email. Please stop right now and look at it in your lunch break ;-).
 
You know the deal with prosecting don’t you: All you have on your desk is your prospect list (which you pulled together the day before in preparation for your morning prospecting session); your diary and your telephone. OK, you can also have your goal poster in front of you. That’s it. No coffee, no snacks, no bad attitude and no shooting the breeze with your colleagues. (Can I suck the fun out of your day, or what ;-)?) If you just spend an hour every morning with the prime objective of getting qualifed appointments, you’ll create a spark which will start a raging fire.
 
Give 100% of your attention to everything you do (results-producing activities) and you will be successful.

Jacques

www.persuade.co.za

Difficulties are opportunities won

Looking Sideways With Jacques de Villiers #2

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won - Winston Churchill


Life’s like a wave, isn’t it? It has its crests and its troughs. It’s much smoother and more fun on the crest than in the trough – ask any surfer.

Watching the Proteas beat England in East London last night, reminded me that life is a series of setbacks and triumphs. As you probably know, our cricketers have been in the deepest valley of late, losing all but one 1-day international … and the first ever test series defeat to England on home soil. Now they’ve won three games in a row and seem set to take the series.

The lesson in this is that our lives are like waves. Sometimes we’ll be up and sometimes we’ll be down … yet, mostly we survive and thrive after the bad times, don’t we? As you read these words, consider that you’ve faced your own personal tragedy at some stage in your life. And, you thought you’d never get through it … but you did. You’re reading this aren’t you?

When you’re in a dark valley always tell yourself that this too will pass. Unfortunately, when you’re on a hill and everything you touch turns to gold … will also pass. This is life.

As a sales professional, how do you turn this universal concept to your favour? Easy. When you’re selling well and closing deals left right and centre, don’t take your foot off the accelerator. Keep on pushing because you’re in the zone. You are sending out winning signals at 300 000 km/s to everyone you come into contact with. The reason you go full out is because this too will pass and you will be in a slump at some stage. As you know in sales, you’re only as good as your last sale. You can be from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.

When you’re in a slump, don’t give up. Keep working your strategy (that’s assuming that you have a strategy – most sales teams I come across are tactically orientated with a myopic vision for the future). Keep on digging for new prospects, keep on phoning for appointments, keep yourself in front of prospects and at some stage you’ll be on the crest of the wave again.

You may be on the road to Damascus, blind and afraid – don’t give up because you will come out of this with a new vision and vigour. Remember that it’s the crucible moments in our lives that forge our destinies. Pick up the phone, call a prospect now and reclaim your place at the crest of the wave.

Looking Sideways with Winston Churchill ;-)

In 1960, a reporter from the London Evening Standard asked Churchill what he thought about the recent prediction that by the year 2000 women would be ruling the world, he muttered gloomily in reply, “They still will, will they?”

By the way, Winston Churchill, like all of us, also went through hills and valleys. The Boers incarcerated him in South Africa. He was in the political wilderness in the 30s, a (almost) lone voice warning the world about the menace called Hitler. In 1941 he was called on to save Britain who was on her knees waiting for the axe to fall. With the defeat of Germany, he was on top of his game and victorious in 1945. The following year he was voted out of office by the very people he had saved. Talk about a tough break.

A hallmark of intelligence is the willingness to change one’s mind – Anonymous

By The Way

I’ve been getting a number of requests asking me what email programme I use to send out my marketing material and Looking Sideways. The programme I use is Mylistmanager, a South African product. I’d really recommend it if you have a database under 10 000 people. If you need to keep in contact with your clients or acquire new ones, it is ideal. Click here to find out more.

If you’re angry with yourself for not nearly scratching the surface of your potential, click here to find out more about my Live on Purpose seminar on 23 February 2005.

Out of Sight Out Of Mind

14 February 2005

Looking Sideways with Jacques de Villiers #1

Welcome to my 1st “official” Looking Sideways of 2005. As promised, I’ll keep it short and send it to you at more regular intervals. This one will be a little longer than the others as I have to put my plans for you in 2005 in context.

Salesmanship has been classified as an art and a science. Rubbish! When you’re the one in the trenches it can only be classifed as a war. A war where every tool available has to be used to succeed. In sales it really is “winner takes all” and the rest are left sucking on the bitter pill of defeat at worst, or scrounging off the scraps that are left, at best. Or as someone once put it – “coming second is like kissing your sister – it may be OK in the backwoods of Kentucky, but really doesn’t hold water with most of us.

My dilemma in 2005 is what am I going to write about that you haven’t already heard and that can really add value to your sales careers.

I may have the makings of a solution. For those of you that know me, you’ll know that I have a keen interest in quantum physics, metaphysics, religion(s), cults (I’ve even read that crackpot, David Icke's stuff – the aliens (in earth's core) and lizards don’t do it for me), mind power, the universe, self-development, motivation, psychology and of course sales and marketing.

This year’s theme will be Making sense of our place in the Universe as entrepreneurs sales professionals, employees and employers. To this end I’ll be sharing theories from all sorts of sources and tying them into our professional lives. So, I’ll be sharing insights from Einsten, Newton, Hawkings, Jung, Planck and others. Through them, I believe I can benefit all of us in our search for self-actualisation.

Out of Sight … out of Mind

It has often been said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know so much about that. From what I’ve experienced the longer you stay away from some things, the less you want them … Out of sight … out of Mind.

There’s even a formula for it.

F = G mm’
r2

The formula above comes from Sir Isaac Newton. In a nutshell, the formula says that if you double the distance between two objects, the attraction between them becomes four times weaker.

What does this mean to us in terms of our sales and marketing efforts. Simple, the less a client (or prospect) sees or hears from us, the less likely she’ll buy from us. Advertising agencies know this and understand that we have to see or hear something 6 times before it registers and before we start buying stuff.

Think about this concept and see how you can apply your mind to the very real challenge of “touching your clients” on a regular basis so that you can get them to buy more stuff from you.

Live on Purpose until next time.

Jacques
www.jacquesdevilliers.com