According to one of the world’s leading sources of sales research data, there are now an average of 6.8 buyers in any complex B2B buying decision.  That was before COVID- 19, those decision-makers are just as likely to be someone in a different part of the country (or the world) as they are to be in your city.  While online meetings do provide us with several benefits, we should not overlook the obvious challenges that this channel presents.

Let’s start with the fact that many people have gone from having a lot of meetings, too many meetings in fact – to now doing nothing but meetings all day every day.

As our calendars fill up faster than panic buyers filled their trolley’s at Woolworths, we find ourselves losing the valuable opportunity to regroup as we dash from one meeting to the next, and almost everyone seems to be breaking what can only be likened to Olympic records in screen time right now.

In a day packed with Zoom meetings and Skype...

You wouldn't go shopping without a budget in mind or a list, so why are you not doing the same thing with your time?

Life is a series of transactions, and when it comes to daily communication demands through emails and WhatsApps, at the very least, we’re paying for those interactions with the currency of our energy and our time. We overlook the fact that everything is a transaction, and every distraction costs you.

We need to be more selective about where we're investing our time and energy to ensure that we’re getting the returns we want.

Every task or job or interaction has a set of objectives. To achieve those goals, certain deliverables are expected of us, and we achieve those through projects, aims and deadlines. But when objectives are unclear or we misunderstand what is expected of us, we start allocating our time and energy very poorly.

Staying ahead in the rat race requires focusing on productivity and output, but how do we successfully do this,...

STOP, DROP & ROLL -What you need to know about managing your inbox before you open your email

If you’re at all like me, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning, your mind starts filling up with what is expected of you for the day. These thoughts are probably a mix of personal and professional, of duties and opportunities, of tasks and errands. With every moment, your head starts to fill up with the “things” you need to do; who to call, what to set up, what to complete.

But ... here’s the thing. By the time you’re done dressing and commuting, by the time you have seated yourself at your desk and opened your inbox - that to-do list in your head has all but vanished. As soon as you open that inbox, that list dissolves into what’s immediately in front of you and the emails that demand your attention NOW. And by the time you shut down for the day and leave your desk, that list has rolled over, again, into tomorrow – a cycle that is...

Is email ruining your life and keeping you from doing your best work?

According to the experts, it may be time to *KONDO your email.

Kondo Used as a verb. it refers to purging things in your life if they do not spark joy in you.Named after Marie Kondo, career organizer, writer of the book "the life-changing magic of tidying up" and star of her own show on Netflix called "tidying up with Marie Kondo."

If you had seen me 6 years ago you would have seen that from the moment I’d wake up, before I’d put on my make-up, I would check my emails. Even though I would usually check them right before I’d go to sleep every night, like clockwork, most mornings there was always a fresh batch waiting for me as soon as I opened my eyes.

I’d find myself reading emails at breakfast, while at the gym… sometimes I even dreamed about receiving a nasty email. And when I was not receiving emails, I was stressing about responding to emails, or whats app or voice mails. My...

It’s human nature to want what we don’t have. As a sales specialist, I see this all the time. A popular trend in the sales and marketing world is to create an avatar of your ‘ideal client’

 This idea has both merits and flaws. If doing the client avatar exercise leads to your business learning how to better understand potential clients, and you are therefore able to reach new clients and serve them appropriately, then this is good. But, if this leads to your salespeople changing the way they think so that they can act and sell in a particular way in an attempt to win your ‘ideal client’ over, then the outcome is often disingenuous behaviour, behaviour that customers recognise and no longer care for.

 But, what about your current client who does not fit into that profile of the ‘ideal client’?

 Recent studies reveal that it can cost up to 5 times more to find a new client than to retain an existing one. So while...

Okay, so it’s the month of love and I am a sales expert, what could the two topics possibly have to do with each other?

For millennia we have been philosophising about what ‘love’ really is: Is it a feeling, a choice, an action or a word?

While we still have a lot to learn, psychologists, scientists and researchers all agree on this:

Love is a positive relationship where an individual feels supported and cared for because someone has chosen to show them love through actions and words. Real love is not about the rush of emotion and expensive dates complete with elaborate or cheesy gifts. And Sales is not limited to building rapport and wining-and-dining a prospect.

No, like love - the kind of sales that leads to long term and mutually beneficial relationships requires an investment after the initial rush of meeting a new prospect.

Wining-and-dining someone to get what you want is a one night stand. It leaves the other person feeling used and jaded. And it makes...

According to author Brian Tracy, setting deadlines increases the likelihood of success by as much as 11.5 times. Imagine the impact this number would have on meaningful meetings?

 That’s great, you may say, but what is a meaningful meeting, and how can I have one of those?

 Well, adopting the SMART goal framework in a business sense makes perfect sense, so how do you adapt those goals to bring about goal-driven, action-oriented meetings, while sticking to deadlines AND still getting the right message across?

 Let’s take a look at the SMART goal framework in a meeting context:

 Stick to the point

Most meetings have a way of getting out of hand, veering off topic and losing the point.

• Have an agenda that is clear-cut, specific and to the point.
• Communicate exactly what your expectations for the meeting are. Vague goals have a way of making you lose control of your meeting.

Measure the impact

Did we do what we said we would do? How did we implement...

Why are you here?

This simple question would, if asked at regular intervals, go a long way to eliminating many of our distractions.  When I am distracted “why am I am here” is a question I ask myself when I am halfway through the comments section of a News 24 article. When I am focused and operating from my best self, “why am I here” is a question I ask myself long before I go into a meeting. 

Looking around many boardrooms, with some attendees distracted by mobile phones, and others staring blankly at the meeting organiser and/or offering an irrelevant or redundant contribution, it is clear that many people attending meetings simply have no idea why they are there? 

"Why am I here" is the one question that will bring you back to your purpose everytime you ask it of yourself. And without purpose, you cannot have meaning. 

And, according to the latest findings from CEB, there are on average 6.8 buyers in any complex buying decision. Many of...

Productivity – meet your higher self

Productivity, how much you get out of the time you put in, is the going to be central to what you achieve this year. Being productive, along with the opportunities you cultivate, the relationships you nurture and the consistency with which you follow your processes – is going to determine what you achieve with the time you are given.

Sounds easy right? But if you have been working for more than 5 minutes you know this is easier said than done. The reasons for this are varied, and we will explore these in more detail in a series of articles that we will release every ‘hump day’ (otherwise known as Wednesday) to help you to get the most out of your hours, your days, your weeks, your month and of course your year.

The first requirement of productivity is one that is not often discussed in the workplace, yet it remains the downfall of so many of the salespeople and clients I work with. Quite simply, if you want to spend time...

Have you ever sat down and wondered how many potential opportunities you’ve brushed up against without realising it? Sitting across from someone at a boardroom table, or mingling at a networking event, or even at a braai, I often think about how many great connections or successful collaborations may have been right there in front of me, yet sadly went undiscovered because I was not paying enough attention.

 Maybe I was distracted, indifferent, too self-absorbed or just in the wrong frame of mind. Maybe I just wasn’t focused. Whatever the reason, I will never know what would have happened if I had taken the time to scratch below the surface and really connect with people.

So, to overcome this problem I adopted two mental postures that I am going to share with you going into 2019 so that you don’t miss the connections and opportunities coming your way.

MENTAL POSTURE ONE – SHOW UP AND SWITCH ON

Present yourself. Your whole self. And, nothing but...