Sales Leaders: To Get a Future Focus, Take a Break From the Present

I’m a huge fan of management guru, Patrick Lencioni, having a number of his books in my bookshelf: The Five Temptations of a CEO, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. He’s currently getting a lot of exposure from Getting Naked — his new book. In his wisdom to consultants, he advises them to help business leaders “enter the danger.” The Strategic Sales Plan; Sales Effectiveness expression is borrowed from improv actors who are encouraged to accept criticism from their peers. (I’ll learn more about this when I take an Improv class with Stevie Ray this fall!) In a sales business, or any other, entering the danger involves addressing those “messy” and most challenging aspects of your business that may be threatening your survival. By confronting the dangers we all too often prefer to avoid, Lencioni says that we can make better future-forward business decisions. These decisions will form the basis of your Strategic Sales Plan.

The concept of confronting both strategic business challenges as well as sales opportunities and sales effectiveness head on is hot. Lencioni’s books are flying off the shelves. So why am I advising you to stop, drop and roll? In the Leadership Shift, I advise sales leaders who are facing difficult business challenges to stop, drop and roll. Let’s look at drop.

Sales Effectiveness to the Rescue

Dropping is not about avoiding the dangerous territory but operating more effectively in the danger zone by removing the threats that can cloud your judgment. It’s about dropping bad habits that sabotage your sales effectiveness and taking a clear, focused look at your challenges and opportunities in order to be able to make forward-focused decisions.

You still need to face the danger but your analysis and decision-making power will be sharper and clearer if you drop to a smoke-free region, a safer planning zone. Here, you have alternatives. You can play “what if.” After all, there’s more than one route to the door, and without all that smoke in your eyes, you can evaluate and pick the best one.

The Sales Lesson: The smoke of the present shouldn’t blind you to the possibilities of the future. Reviewing your Sales Processes is a good place to start.

The Sales Question: Are you focused on what ought to be true about your current situation or what really is true about it? How does this affect your view of the future? An independent Sales Evaluation will give you a head-start.

Share and Enjoy: