Focus and Success in Sales

Laser-focus or Multitasking?

“A laser produces a very narrow beam of light that is useful in many technologies and instruments. The letters in the word laser stand for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”

from spaceplay.nasa.gov

As I sit down and start writing this article, I am getting distracted by little things like the ping of an arriving email; the urge for a coffee; or a sudden thought on how to improve a presentation due next week. If this continues, I will never get this piece done.

I need to maintain focus, laser-like focus.

And finishing this article is not even a larger, more critical goal like staying focused to achieve this month’s quota; or staying customer-centric amid internal distractions; or focused on making it through this recession.

Laser-like focus means to continuously align all your thoughts, emotions, and actions with one of your goals. Stop looking at two or more directions at the same time and start focusing like a laser.

Staying focused starts with having goals in the first place. And while at times in business we speak of staying laser-focused on one goal (e.g., complete development and launch the new product by x date), the reality is that this goal has many supporting goals (e.g., launch pre-marketing by y date), as well as being part of another set of larger goals (e.g., double revenue next year).

I like to think of it has a goal hierarchy and think Johannus Steger is correct, “You can have multiple goals and make sure you are only doing one action step at a time, and that will work out just fine.”

For me, right now, all of my other goals aside, that means to focus on completing this article.

At times, when I am on a phone call with family or a friend, the other person suddenly asks, “what are you doing?” A tell-tale sign that I got distracted, maybe writing an email, reading, or just paying attention to someone in the room. And in the process of attempting to multitask, I lost focus on the phone call… and the person was able to notice.

Multitasking is the act of performing more than one task or activity simultaneously, such as speaking on the phone while writing an email.

Multitasking can result in time wasted due to context switching, in tasks taking longer to complete, and becoming prone to errors due to insufficient attention. And there is also research that shows that “if one becomes proficient at two tasks, it is possible to rapidly shift attention between the tasks and perform the tasks well.” (Wikipedia)

I guess the success of multitasking over focus depends on several variables. In my layman observation, multitasking can work if the tasks are related (e.g., reading a company website while on the phone with this company), or trainable, intuitive, and non-creative (e.g., taking notes on the conversation while in the conversation).

So, how about in Sales?

Let’s start with quoting Pipedrive: “From analyzing the previous month’s sales results, preparing for the next call, and finishing a proposal, if salespeople don’t know how to shift their focus properly, or are focused on too many things at once, the sales process will get clogged, and they won’t achieve maximum results. Contrary to popular belief, multitasking does not equal productivity. Good salespeople know how to focus completely on one thing at a time.”

- When working with a client, focus only on them – the fear that they may not sign, and you will miss your quota is a distraction at that point.

- When on a call, focus only on that call – take notes, read supporting materials, but don’t think of the next call.

- When in a meeting, focus only on the topic at hand – when the meeting is not customer-centric, the more you focus, the faster you are done and back to working with your clients.

Gerhard Gschwandtner offered a great piece of advice in a recent newsletter: “Learning how to stay focused is one of the linchpins of effective selling... Are you as focused as you could be? Get all the issues of distraction out on the table and examine the root causes. You may uncover that you simply don't want to be doing some of the things you've committed to do. As a result, you hide in distractions. Strictly evaluate your choices about how you spend your time. Focus will follow.”

Well, I am glad that focus helped me to finish this article.

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Pipedrive – Why Focus Is Essential in Sales and 5 Steps to Achieve It

Leon Ho – How To Maintain a Laser Focus And Be Productive

Johannus M. Steger – You Need More Than One Goal

Wikipedia – Human Multitasking

Photo by Anne Gosewehr