Do you work out? Do you go to the gym?
Hopefully the answer is yes, because as a sales person, staying healthy physically
and mentally helps with the endurance you need in the game of sales.
Crossfit is no longer a craze, rather a
mainstay approach to exercise. Crossfit combines a little bit of this with a
little bit of that in a one hour routine. Think about it this way, in one hour
you’ll do some running and probably other cardio exercises, mix in a lot of
stretching, and then top it all off with weight training. Crossfit works the
entire body and mind. And, no two days (classes) are alike.
Sales can sometimes become stagnant. A
sales person’s routine can become repetitive. If you make the same amount of
cold calls every day, at the same time of the day, and say the same pitch on every call, you can burn out. It’s like eating the same lunch at the same
time at your desk every day of the week, it gets hard to be excited. So, what
can a sales person do to breathe life into their routine – take a crossfit
approach.
I’ve been using this approach for my
entire career and I’ve taught this approach to countless numbers of sales
people. It never dawned on me to relate it to crossfit until I started doing
crossfit myself. Now I can call it something…sales crossfit.
My concept for sales crossfit is simple.
Routine is important. Without developing and sticking with a routine, schedules
may become very unbalanced, and you begin to scramble to find time to get
something done. Much like going to the gym, if you don’t stick with a routine
or schedule, it is easy to say “I’ll go tomorrow”. In sales terms “I’ll get to
it tomorrow”. Routine is not a dirty word in sales or in your career so long as
it is used in proper context.
A sales person should have a routine
that calls for internal team meetings, client meetings, client entertainment,
cold calling / prospecting, networking, etc. on a regularly scheduled basis.
For example, Steve has a great routine, he makes calls Monday afternoon, Tuesday
morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning. He has this
time set every day or every week in his schedule. Some days it is a one hour
slot and others a two. Steve’s goal is to make a certain amount of qualified calls,
but more importantly, to hold a certain amount of qualified conversations.
Where crossfitting his sales comes into play is who he’s calling, why he’s calling
and his pitch. Steve mixes it up to avoid becoming stagnant.
Some organizations require sales people
to meet their clients on location while others want the client to come to them.
Crossfit this sales approach and do both. Mix it up and get the client out of
their comfort zone from time-to-time. Same goes for networking opportunities.
Break from the same industry related events and look to others than may spark
your curiosity even if not directly in line with your targets.
I’ve long believed that the path to success
in sales is to always be in sales mode. Staying sharp and always being in sales
mode requires a sales person to stay focused and excited. In an effort to keep the
excitement alive, try different approaches to your sales tactics, mix it up a
bit, try taking a sales crossfit approach.