Sales Training Article: Managing Distractions

By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® – The Sales Training Company

We live in an interrupt-driven world as people and companies compete for thin slices of our time and mind share. A recent study concluded we now have a shorter attention span than goldfish. I’m afraid it’s a trend with no end in sight.

In going through a year and driving toward achieving quota, competent salespeople remain focused on what’s important. In my mind there’s a major difference when reviewing pipelines. B & C Players often have high numbers of low probability opportunities while A Players will have a lower number of high probability opportunities. Another way of saying this is that mediocre sellers have high levels of activity while top performers focus on progress.

Since we launched CCS® we’ve shown ways to do sanity checks when qualifying that are based upon buyer actions vs. seller opinions. After making calls there are standard debriefing questions sellers should be able to answer:

• What are the goal(s) (desired business outcomes) of the buyer?
• What capabilities are needed to achieve the goal(s)?
• What is the potential value to the buyer?
• What other titles would be involved in making the buying decision?
• Will/can the person the seller called on provide access to those titles?

These questions apply whether contacts are proactive or reactive. The first question above is based upon the first core concept of CCS®: No goal means no prospect. This simple wisdom applied to inbound/nurtured leads could allow B & C Players to better decide which opportunities they should pursue. Once they’ve asked for access (to qualify a champion), both the seller and manager have a measureable buyer action to determine if the Champion milestone has been achieved.

Take a look at the sales training workshops available to you.