“Focus is the new competitive weapon for sales organizations” says author, Colleen Stanley. More importantly in this excerpt from her article, The Neuroscience of Effective Sales Habits, she speaks about a habit that managers and leaders might want to reconsider.
“In a world where most people have the attention span of a gnat, you can win business by teaching your team the power of being present and focused.
Contrary to popular opinion, multi-tasking doesn’t work, particularly when a salesperson is learning a new skill or attitude. It has nothing to do with IQ, it has everything to do with how the brain works.
The prefrontal cortex, often referred to as the executive center, is charged with learning new information. And when learning new information, this part of your brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time.
You don’t need a big research study to arrive at this conclusion. Just apply common sense and observe professional athletes. When they are on the field or the court practicing, you don’t see them texting or checking their emails. They are focused on executing the plays and drills. Top sales people, like top athletes, know that focus is needed in order to execute the sales playbook.
CEO’s and sales managers sadly fall short of modeling focused behavior. During a meeting, they are often the first ones to pull out their smart phone to check messages. People watch what you do, not what you say, so the message being sent to the sales team is that it’s okay not to pay attention.
Here’s the irony. The CEO’s and sales managers are the very same people complaining that their sales team doesn’t know the company value proposition or responses to prospect objections. Perhaps, it’s because members of your team are following your example. They were busy responding to emails during training or coaching sessions rather than paying attention to developing their skills.”
Consider this week what behavior you are modeling to your sales people and your employees. Bring your attention and focus to your behavior and when you catch yourself engaging in behavior that you don’t want others to replicate, say so. The most admired and effective managers are not afraid to call themselves out in front of their people. Modeling self-correcting behavior is something great managers do extremely well!
