Selling task...or sales readiness busywork?

Great question to noodle on from Sales Productivity Council group. I struggled a bit with a comment about ‘non-selling’ tasks. I guess in the purest sense, a ‘selling task’ is only one where we are engaged in a dialog for a prospective sale. The thing is – many tasks go into ‘teeing up’ the opportunity for that dialog to begin, whether networking, marketing, researching…etc.

I often talk to sales professionals about the ‘stop doing’ list as being as important as the ‘to do’ list. I also believe that ‘chunking’ our time into ‘money making’ slots and ‘sales readiness’ slots works well. Plan 2 hours for pure sales tasks, for example, and work that plan.

Too often it is the daily distractions (email, phone, quote comes in…) that take us away from focused money-making sales tasks onto the supportive (and still critical) sales readiness tasks. It is the frequency and intensity of laser focus that produces results. There is a big difference between, readiness, intensity and busy.

Are YOU a ZOMBIE Salesperson? Quick download link.

Here's a direct link to download the book excerpt.

Are YOU a ZOMBIE Salesperson?

Do you have these defining characteristics?

• You are technically shuffling forward, but your sales are dead?
• Can’t quite talk the talk anymore and feel like you are mumbling and moaning your pitch day after day?
• Are you rabid for the deal, and rotting in discontent and lack of support?
• Are you stuck in one track thinking…brains…brains…brains…I need brains…

Okay. Maybe it is not that bad. But I think many of us get stuck…really stuck…and we stumble around looking for the brains we need to get out of our slump, situation, pigeon hole, bidding war or the frustration of knowing that everyone seems to be outrunning us.

Any top producer knows the signs of ZombieSaleZ…the challenge is bucking up and doing what it takes to fight off the growing effects. But how? With what? Are there some real-world tactics that work?

If you’re still with me, dare if you will to discover some tips for emerging from the curse of ZombieSaleZ! Here are four tips to get you thinking. In the following pages of this eBook you will be able to do a quick 5 minute assessment to see where YOU are on the ZombieSaleZ scale!

How do you return to the land of the LIVING…and become a Value Creator instead of another Vendor?

You have to have a Map so you are actually going somewhere. If you decided to head out for Topeka, KS would you just start walking? Of course not. Why do it with business? The journey from being treated like a vendor to one of being acknowledged as a Value Creator…starts with a plan to go from Zombie to ZMaster! Get a map that shows where you are in your development and where you want to go. Moaning about the situation with no commitment to goal setting or planning is like a Zombie stumbling around in the dark. You know to do this…but are you already planning, setting goals and working on bridging performance gaps for 2013?

You need tools and resources – good people, processes and technology. First, know what is available (or not) to consider the two things to do for your customers; second is to provide so much value that you are irreplaceable AND third is to position strategically with ideal customers. Top producers load up with their guns and ammo to battle the Zombie horde of excuses and blame. More importantly, they go to battle for their customers. With guns blazing, the emerging ZMaster makes customers realize just how strategically important and hard to replace they can be to the client’s work-life and business.

You need to break away from the Zombie horde. Finally, when the Sales Professional has become the hero in their clients’ eyes they have escaped the tragic curse of the ZombieSaleZ malady. They break away from the Zombie horde. They become a Value Creator, holding more than one option, thought, or solution in mind at any given time. This is “Both / And” thinking. More than just a one track mind, the both/and thinker is continually seeing more of the overall picture and opportunity. The customer goes from thinking that the salez Zombie just wants to suck their brains (wallets) to appreciating how the ZMaster genuinely cares about them and is creating value (and sometimes even saving their job (life). Now start walking…talking…and selling with more confidence.

You need to know what feeds YOU (hint: it is more than brains). It is critical to know what inspires and motives the Value Creator in us, and to let our peers and management know how to feed us (with pay and praise). When we participate and celebrate with others on the journey, our contribution extends beyond that of merely being a Zombie in the horde to being an influencer who contributes significantly to our clients and the company overall. The Top Producers in any company are the ones we all look to for this inspiration. They have arrived to being fully alive! What makes you feel alive?

My wish is that this offers you things to think about and saves you from the horrors of low sales performance.

Cindy G. Goldsberry is VP Strategic Sales and Services at Boundless network and runs the division dedicated to growing enterprise accounts for the company. She works with the Boundless sales channel to fulfill Boundless’ objective of controlling promotional spend by bringing vision, process solutions and innovation through technology-enabled services to drive real-time cost savings for clients. She is author of ZFactor Sales Accelerator: V2V From Vendor to Value Creator published and available on Amazon in 2012.