4 Steps to Fighting Sales Procrastination
Marcus Chan
?? Stop losing deals to the status quo | Sales Training + Coaching for B2B Sales Teams and AEs That Gets Results | 4X Salesforce Top Influencer | WSJ Best-Selling Author | Feat. in Forbes & Entrepreneur
I know - NOBODY wants to admit they are a procrastinator! However, the reality is that being HUMAN, everyone has something (or somethings) that they procrastinate on!
In sales, there are so many things you can procrastinate on:
- Making more cold calls
- Getting out of bed even if you don't have a day full of appointments
- Following up with that prospect that's on the fence
- Calling that prospect again that shot you down a month ago
- Logging your sales activities into your CRM
- Asking for the business one more time
- Trial closing one more time
- Etc!
When you think about it, all that sales procrastination is tied to FEAR. It could be fear of REJECTION, fear of what you'll hear from the customer, a fear of coming across incapable, a fear of the unknown, a fear of failing, etc! Whether you want to believe it or not, it is very likely your sales procrastination is tied to the fear of something! Think of it this way: would you still procrastinate on doing all your sales activities if you knew every single one would lead to a guaranteed closed deal??
I thought so! However, the reality is that no one has a 100% closing ratio no matter the skill level. So here are 4 steps you can take to fight your sales procrastination and to take your results to the next level:
1.) Own the morning. It's no secret that the top performers of any field or industry consistently have a great morning routine! (I wrote about my morning routine here.) The reality is that how you start your morning can really determine how the rest of the day goes. If you start off by oversleeping, missing breakfast, being late, etc., how motivated are you really going to feel after that?
However, if you wake up early, review your goals, workout, meditate, have a great breakfast, etc., you've already accomplished more than 80% of other people will have done before they've woken up! You will have a feeling of accomplishment by simply conquering your morning. This cascades into the rest of your day and increases your chances of doing the things that many procrastinate on!
2.) Choose one thing and break it down to simple digestible steps. Let’s say that you’ve calculated out that if you do 100 more cold calls per months, you’ll close 5 more deal per month! You may see 100 MORE cold calls as a large and daunting amount of cold calls – what if you broke it down by work day? 100 cold calls divided by 22 working days equals about 5 more cold calls per day. Isn’t it much easier to digest the idea of doing 5 more cold calls per day? Choose something that may seem like a difficult task and break it down into simple and achievable steps and you’ll see your results compound!
3.) Celebrate the small wins. What are you celebrating to know you’ve made progress? Is it a closed deal? Revenue generated? That can be a fatal trap – that means if you don’t achieve some of these big achievements, you may find yourself feeling defeated and ultimately causing you to take less action!
What are small milestones that can give you motivation on your progress? For example: if we use the same situation as above - if you have 5 days in a row of averaging 5 extra cold calls per day, that is progress as you were NOT doing it before and ultimately that will lead to 100 more cold calls per month and 5 more closed deals per month! Those small wins are critical for keeping you motivated to keep going!
4.) Seek accountability. Don't fear accountability as it is not a bad thing! People will spend thousands of dollars per month for personal trainers to simply hold them accountable to doing the things they are procrastinating on in the gym! If you want to stop procrastinating on specific actions that you KNOW will drastically improve your results, ask for more accountability!
If we go back to the same 5 extra cold calls per day example, ask your sales manager to hold you accountable to it. Share and tell a peer your goals and do it together! When you have multiple people asking you about doing 5 more cold calls per day, it will help hold you accountable and increase your chances of doing it! AND this ultimately leads to you achieving your goals faster!
So there you have it: 4 Steps to Fighting Sales Procrastination! A few small tweaks to get you to take MORE action immediately! If you liked this article, feel free to share and comment below!
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Marcus Chan is an award-winning results and people-driven executive sales leader. Over the last decade, Marcus has been promoted 10X in 10 years and has been ranked in the top percentile of every company and every role he has been in. He is passionate about helping others reach their maximum potential. You can follow him on Instagram here for daily motivation! Please re-share this article if you found value in it.