Have you ever started the day feeling that there was so much to do that you didn’t know where to start? If you’re in sales, it’s not uncommon to feel you have too much to sell, too many follow-up tasks, and too many deals that haven’t closed. Which activities will allow you to hit your goals?
The best advice is often the simplest. Focus on the single, next step with each client or prospect.
Focusing on just the next step is the permission you need to focus on reaching an achievable goal. And an achievable goal is motivating. We use a 7-step process in How Selling that makes it easier to decide the next step in the sales process.
Sales managers should be asking their sellers where they are in this process with each account during their one-on-one meetings. Salespeople should self-manage using this tool.
The focus is always on moving forward with the prospect or client.
Let’s look at each one:
- Find is where you start when you need more prospects in the funnel. So that would be a daily activity if you are being honest.
- Select is when you have several prospects, but need to quickly determine which ones have the best potential to give you a return on your investment of time and energy.
- Approach is where salespeople spend most of their time. Building their brand to connect with new prospects and busy clients to get the appointment.
- Define is the critical step where you use your face time to identify client needs and get an assignment, a problem to be solved, a project to be tackled.
- Solve is where you brainstorm for bright ideas and build a buyable solution from your company’s resources and capabilities. It’s best done collaboratively with the prospect.
- Confirm is the most effective way to close. Because your solution was created with the prospect, and is based on their needs and the assignment they gave you, you are confirming the details of your buyable solution.
- Deliver is what you do after the prospect says yes. It’s critical to your reputation and future business.
Focus your to-do list on your clients and prospects (or lack of them) and the single, next step needed to move each one forward in the sales process. If your activities are not getting you from find to deliver, consider if they really belong on your list.