DeepSalesWork
Selling isn't about making more calls or sending more messages. It's more about empathising, building deep connections, and understanding your customers and their world.
That's what #DeepSalesWork is all about.
Selling isn't about making more calls or sending more messages. It's more about empathising, building deep connections, and understanding your customers and their world.
That's what #DeepSalesWork is all about.
A well-known author, Cal Newport, has introduced this style of work in his book Deep Work. The subtitle of the book is "Rules for focused success in a distracted world".
Newport coined the term Deep Work to describe work that's performed in a state of distraction-free concentration and pushes cognitive capacity to its limit. This type of work creates new value, and it's what sets apart a reliable sales rep from a rockstar who can close new deals while completing valuable internal projects.
Finding a balance between responsive client communication and unplugged Deep Work will improve your output, create new value for your organisation, and reduce your stress levels along the way.
Shallow work involves routine, less challenging tasks that can be easily accomplished without deep concentration. Examples include answering emails, attending meetings, and performing administrative tasks.
Characteristics: Less demanding and often repetitive. It can be completed without deep cognitive effort.
The best time to do the shallow work is after Deep work.
The life of salespeople is full of distractions: plenty of apps, notifications, messages, calls, and a lot more. Sales professionals face a unique challenge in the modern workplace.
Their job requires them to be responsive and available to build new connections. Still, it's becoming increasingly clear that the more responsive and available they are, the harder it is to do meaningful and valuable work.
Here lies the paradox of sales professionals: it's the salesperson's job to bring in new customers, but the majority of the work distracts us from that goal.
Deep Work is "distraction-free work that pushes cognitive ability to its limit and creates new value". It's valuable work that requires focus, energy, and actively removing distractions.
Newport's most suitable style of Deep Work for salespeople is the Rhythmic style.
The Rhythmic style of work translates Deep Work sessions into a daily habit. An hour of Deep Work a day will result in an impressive output after a year.
We recommend starting with 1 hour of Deep work, and making it the first hour of each day, because it's the easiest time to avoid distractions. As the day goes on, there are increasingly better chances of interruptions, "emergencies", and other responsibilities.
Regardless of the task, this hour of work each morning sets the tone for the day. It also gives you the confidence to focus on client outreach for the remainder of the day, knowing that you've already made progress on valuable projects.
"Flow" is the psychological state characterised by complete absorption in an activity, where individuals are fully immersed and focused on what they are doing.
It is often considered a state of optimal experience, where individuals feel their skills are perfectly matched to the challenges they face, leading to a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Flow follows focus. Individuals in a state of flow are deeply concentrated on the task at hand, often losing track of time and becoming unaware of distractions.
To achieve the state of flow in sales preparation and practice is critical.
Deep work needs discipline of the highest order. It requires unwavering focus. Emotionally the person needs to be able to get in the zone.
When someone gets into flow state or the zone in sales, they tend not to want to stop – their output will be too fruitful and they most likely will enjoy it too much and so it ends up as a win/win for everyone.
It is possible to switch flow on and off, but to get good at it, one needs to practice—a lot.
Preparation: Get your shit together. Find a 'sacred space' where you can work, clear your desk. Water up.
Clock it: Get an alarm clock, and start working in time chunks, gradually increasing the chunks. Start with a Chunk of 45 mins or 90 mins.
Be data ready: Start work on a clients' list that has all the information you need.
Ignore everything else: Shut down your email. Don't take any inbound calls from anyone.
Clarity: Set a clear intention for the session, what you want from it and what you need to do to make it happen.
Be mindful: Try a bit of mindfulness to clear your head and to allow for some crystal-clear focus.