During these unprecedented times, sales leaders need to get creative to survive. But they also need to reinforce the core principles that deliver results in any market. Randy Illig, leader of our Sales Performance Practice, shares strategies for executing with excellence in his Forbes column.
At least for many of us, our sales situation is clear in this COVID-19 pandemic. On the continuum of being in deep trouble on one end to thriving on the other, each of us can place a pin on the board as to where we are now.
No matter where we are, eventually we’ll move to Phase II, which is the bridge to what will become our new selling reality.
I have always believed that a good strategy with excellent execution beats an excellent strategy with good execution — every time. So, how well you execute your bridge plan now will make all the difference in the success you’ll have in a recovery.
I asked my friend and colleague, Chris McChesney, for his thoughts about how to execute with excellence. Chris and I now work together at FranklinCovey, but I was a fan long before we did.
He’s the bestselling author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals. Chris has produced a must-read white paper on execution, if you want more. In this article, I’m going to address a slice of his sage advice about executing with excellence.
FOCUS
In times like these, focus is critical; it’s also the hardest thing to do. Why is it so very difficult to get? The answer has to do with the way that people process ambiguity. Right now they are dealing with it in every aspect of their lives: their children, their parents, their jobs, their workspace and Zoom. There’s only so much a person can handle.
A new sales goal represents unknown variables and because people’s ability to process anymore unknown variables is already spent, they can’t focus on it.
