I read a BBC article recently that states that children now spend more than 6 hours of screen time per day! Additionally, adults now check their phones more than 50 times a day!

Can someone say “DISTRACTION”!!!!

Now don’t get me wrong, if you’re a smart salesperson in 2017 your mobile phone is your office. Not like the days like my father worked in, where you needed an office, secretary, fax machine, pager, etc… Now we can do it all from our mobile phones.

The problem is, most of us aren’t just using our phones to make us more productive like they are designed to, instead we are spending too much time checking social media, watching Netflix, playing games, or getting updates on our favourite team’s scores.

In order to be successful in all areas of your life in 2017, you need to remain focused, disciplined and free from everyday distractions.

In particular in the area of sales, you need to be switched on and free of distractions in order to succeed this year.

Don’t let others fool you, sales my friends, is a numbers game… 

If you want to get 5 sales a week in whatever field you’re in, you’re going to have to speak to 20 plus new enquiries, follow up and present to 10 exisiting leads, build and nurture relationships with 5 of your previous clients, keep up to speed with market and product changes, and be mentally ready for each new enquiry.

But if we are constantly getting distracted with things that either don’t matter or seem to matter at the time but aren’t linked to our sales results, we aren’t going to make it big this year.

From personal experience, in order not to get distracted and stay focused on your goal, you must put some boundaries in place especially with your mobile phone. 

Here are 6 I suggest you do right now!

1/ Turn off all notifications on your phone. 

This includes your email. Email can be checked at times you schedule throughout the day but you don’t want spam emails and unimportant things constantly grabbling for your attention

2/ Group your contacts 

If you do this you will only accept calls and messages during work hours from clients (and maybe your spouse). When you take lunch, take 5 minutes to look and respond to anything urgent. 

3/ Write down your number 1 focus for the day. 

If you’re in sales, I’m going to assume it has to do with speaking to X number of people, conducting X number of presentations or getting X amount of new leads. Keep looking at this goal throughout the day.

4/ Know your biggest weakness and hide it

For me its watching and checking scores on the NBA. It can easily suck an hour out of my day without me even realising it. As I result I’ve hidden the app on my phone so it’s not on my front screen, instead I have to go into a folder and flick through 5 screens to get it it.

5/ Realise in sales if something isn’t making you money, it’s costing you money. 

When you get this revelation, you realise every time you check social media or the basketball scores, these activities actually cost you money. Imagine if Facebook charged you $1.99 every time you opened the app?! How often would you check it now?

6/ Never take your phone into a meeting room.

If you’re having a sales meeting or meeting with a client, never take your phone in with you. It can either stay in your bag under the desk or outside the room. Calls, notifications and distractions will come at the time when you need all your attention and focus to be on those in the room.

In a world of pop ups, notifications and information at our finger tips, don’t let 2017 be your year of distraction!

Great selling!

Dave Benson