The 32 Worst Things You Can Do in Sales:
7. Getting Distracted
By Steven J. Schmidt (2/16/09)
When you are in sales, you have a lot of freedom and independence. With that freedom and independence, however, there is the possibility that you can just decide to not work for a few hours when you really should. This can happen if you went to bed late, had a late night with your friends, or if a friend calls and has off for the day, and they say, "Hey let's go to the ball game, no one will know if you aren't working anyway."
Trust me, those types of things have happened, can happen and will happen. I have been in situations where I met my sales quota for the week, so I decided that I would go downtown for the day and enjoy myself. Now, there is nothing wrong with treating yourself for working hard, but, "there is a time for everything," as the great King Solomon eluded to in poems. The day spent downtown could have earned me an extra three or five hundred dollars.
You have to have the ability to simply say to yourself or a friend, "Sorry, time is money." As simple as that sounds, that is the truth. You are out there knocking on doors or going to your appointments. You have to hustle hard and not let anything or anyone stand in your way. Once you get sidetracked, it will be hard to turn back and you will get lazy. You will always make your quota, but is that what you want to do? No, of course not. You want to go over your quota, and make as much money as you possibly can.
Being in sales is very tough - not just to get them but to be able to not let the outside distractions steer you away from your focus. If you have the dedication and the personality, selling will be easy. And if you keep reading this Web site, you'll make billions in sales!!! (Always have to give myself a nice shout out once in a while).
Seriously, once you have a built-in routine with how you plan your day, it will be much easier to turn down the outside distractions that the world has to offer. If you cannot get into a routine and you let the distractions get to you, then you need to be in a 9-5 office-setting job. There is nothing wrong with that, but I do not believe you would be reading this if you wanted a typical punch-in, punch-out-type of job. Therefore, you must stick to a plan on a daily basis. You must stay focused, motivated and dedicated, or you will always live from check to check because you spend too much time at ball games.
More from The 32 Worst Things You Can Do in Sales
- Walking Away - 2/16/09
- Not Looking Customers in the Eye - 2/16/09
- Talking Too Much - 2/16/09
- Not Listening to Customers - 2/16/09
- Not Knowing Your Product - 2/16/09
- Not Being Organized - 2/16/09
- Getting Distracted - 2/16/09
- Selling Price Alone - 2/16/09
- Not Getting Proper Rest - 2/17/09
- Getting Flustered (Lack of Production) - 2/19/09
- Leaving Territory Too Quickly - 2/20/09
- Being Rude to Customers - 2/23/09
- Being Too Content - 2/24/09
- Maintaining Poor Hygiene - 2/26/09
- Pressuring Customers - 2/28/09
- Not Having Fun - 3/2/09
- Not Closing - 3/3/09
- Lacking a Powerful Introduction - 3/4/09
- Not Following Up With Customers - 3/6/09
- Not Having a Strong Mentality - 3/8/09
- Lacking Discipline - 3/10/09
- Not Handling Objections - 3/12/09
- Sounding Desperate - 3/14/09
- Having Poor Customer Service - 3/17/09
- Not Taking a Vacation - 3/21/09
- Misreading Customers - 3/27/09
- Lacking a Unique Sales Identity - 3/31/09
- Not Letting Yourself Be Known - 4/6/09
- Not Having Patience - 4/9/09
- Not Holding Yourself Accountable - 4/11/09
- Hitting on a Customer's Wife - 4/13/09
- Acting Like a Salesperson - 4/23/09
- Overview - 5/23/09
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