We’ve all had those days in work in sales or business development where we feel like we are more ‘In the Zone’ than others. Well, I thought I’d share a great tip my Director and renowned sales training consultant Richard Lane shares with all of our own durhamlane outsourced sales teams as well as our client’s sales teams too, to improve focus and increase sales performance – “Give yourself a break”. Don’t worry this will make sense as long as you read on!
Did you know that the maximum amount of time a person can focus intently on a task is 90 minutes? Any longer than this 90 minute threshold and your sales productivity/results will begin to dwindle, your mind wanders and you lose your sales edge. So then you begin switching focus, working on tasks that are easy to do, but not very important in the overall scheme of things – Sound familiar? This is the time to ‘Give yourself a Break’, get up and move, go get a coffee, take a 5 minute walk outside.
Make sure you take 5-10 minutes away from your desk to relax, I know this may feel like you're wasting time and losing out on potential sales opportunities, but the truth is, your brain needs that break to refresh occasionally. After this break when you get back to your desk, you'll be re-energised and mentally raring to go again, now able to focus and have better sales conversations. I personally use this same process whenever I have an office day of writing scheduled, and, to make myself even more productive, I plan out my 90 minute sessions either the night before or first thing in the morning, that way, once I get going, I can focus on the individual small goals I’ve set myself. The best thing about working this way is that I'm constantly moving forwards, with mini wins and successes throughout my day.
So ‘Give yourself a break’ it’ll be well worth your time and will dramatically improve your sales success and productivity.
So whether you work in business development or direct sales yourself, or looking to deepen your understanding as to how business owners can improve sales pipeline, take a look at our Sales Process Review page on our website, or take a look at our high impact sales training workshops.
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