16 February 2005

 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-producing activities � 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.

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