The Sales Experiment

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The Need to Make Difficult Decisions about Everything We Do

The Need to Make Difficult Decisions about Everything We Do
the importance of difficult decision-making
Photo Credit: `James Wheeler via Compfight cc

We can only do so many things in a day.

If we shove as many things as possible into that day, we can only be so effective.

We become unfocused and scattered and obstacles start popping up that hinder us and distract us from our key goals.

One of the keys to being more effective (in any area) is to make difficult decisions.

We must decide between competing opportunities. Usually, there is something good about each opportunity that comes up, even if it’s just an opportunity to please someone and move their agenda forward at your own peril.

As I’ve been making my way through Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown, (affiliate link), I’ve been trying to be more selective and intentional about my decisions around sales opportunities.

The safest way to do this is to be clear about what the best possible opportunity would look like and only say yes to those opportunities.

I’m horrible at this practice, but it’s a practice that all of us could benefit from. Otherwise, we slowly lose control and direction.

Every decision is an opportunity to move ourselves toward our highest priorities.

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Today’s Reading and Listening

I’ve been consistently listening to and/or reading to positive, mindset-shifting, skill-sharpening content every day since 9/1/2014 per my commitment to the Dan Miller Challenge.  I have not, though, been so hot at writing every day. 

The Art of Focus Pt 1: Opportunity Cost Internet Business Mastery – Episode 255

Jeremy and Jason (the hosts) discuss the hidden costs in the decisions we make around our businesses along with some guidelines to help us make wiser choices. This dovetails nicely with my learning from Essentialism.

The 3 Drivers of Sales Success  Part III – Your Sales Playbook Podcast, Episode 109

This podcast is a wonderful (free) masterclass on developing more business by strengthening our relationships with current clients.

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One Thing Every Dang Day

One Thing Every Dang Day

It seems like a wimpy way to do things: Pick a goal and select one action to take that will move you toward that goal. And then actually do that one action item.

It’s not ‘massive action’. It’s not ‘leaving out all out on the field’. It’s one thing. Every day.

But one thing a day, compounded over the year, might be 2 to 3 times more ‘things’ than you’d do otherwise.

The Habit of One Thing a Day

I’ve heard this suggestion before. Darren Hardy talks about it at length in his book The Compound Effect. Paul Castain discusses it in his Podcast (the one I listened to this morning), admonishing his listeners to learn to take action.

What I love about this suggestion to select one, maybe two, things a day is that it helps me move forward with much less frustration. As Castain points out in this episode of his Sales Playbook podcast, we all have families and jobs and clients and a variety of responsibilities. We can’t simply start taking 5-10 new actions a day without majorly upsetting the balance in our lives.

Therefore, one specific, targeted action a day is a healthy way to move toward a well-defined goal or personal self-improvement initiative.

That’s what I’ve been attempting to do through this challenge that I affectionately call the 6 Month Dan Miller Challenge.

Today’s Action: Request Castain’s “Qualities of a Rock Star Sales Person” list, rate myself on a scale of 1-10 for all 75 qualities, and identify particular weaknesses.

See for yourself where the weaknesses fall out. Now I have to decide if I’m going to focus on the weaknesses or pull out my ’10s’ and leverage my strengths. Decisions.

Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged
Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged – I hope nobody I know disagrees with my 9s and 10s

Today’s Second Action: Reach out to a new networking contact.

I love the little self-tests and ‘in the privacy of my own office’ projects, but if part of the goal here is to create value to receive value, then I need to find folks for whom to create value. If my main action item doesn’t involve engaging another human person, I must add at least one attempt to reach out.

My three pronged marketing plan to find places to teach, find bloggers and journalists to get to know, and engage experts in one-on-one interviews is vital to my mission.

I also will need to add more direct sales prospecting methods. But I’m sure I’ll be running into those action items soon.

Today’s Listening

I did read more of The Dip by Seth Godin, but not a whole lot more.

My main listening was The Sales Playbook Podcast (I had a lot of phone calls during my rush hour drive times today):

Episode 106 Getting Back To School With Your Selling Skills Part 3 September 11, 2014 – Paul Castain. My exercise for today came from this podcast.

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