Inside Sales by Design

Archives for November 2020

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The 4 D’s and a 5th for Good Measure

Heard about this a couple of weeks ago and it’s too good to not share. Here we go!

Do

Delegate

Delay

Delete

Some very simple time management techniques in those words and ties to so much of what we’ve talked about already. Time blocking, picking and choosing what gets our attention verses reacting to everything around us.

The 5th “D” is Determination. It’s easy to rattle off the 4 “D” words; quite another to walk it out and execute.

Determine – is a verb, implying action, to decide

Determined – also a verb implying action, to move forward resolutely

Determination – is a noun implying discernment, knowledge, and wisdom

The question is, what on your calendar and part of your life right now get which “D” and how determined are you to take the ownership?

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Strength Based Approach

Focuses on what you’re good at and using those assets, characteristics, and talents more to get the job done than focusing on a deficit based approach. The deficit based approach says, where are my weaknesses and what do I need to shore up.

The focus is in the wrong spot.

Focus on what you’re good at move in that direction. Coach your people that way. Learn their communication style. Focus on the WHAT and not the HOW.

In order to do this well, a strong sense of self-awareness, communication styles, leadership styles, learning styles is required. And quite frankly, this far into the 21st century with the importance of EQ emphasized, is a skillset we should all be cultivating in order to develop our teams and selves.

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Fear. Anxiety. Stress. Oh my!

These three emotions and feelings make the most combustible combination known to man. And we’re in the middle of all them right now and probably go between them in any given hour. For most of us, our bodies are not designed to handle high levels of stress for a prolonged period of time without severe health consequences. That is a biological fact. So the question is, what do we do about it?

We start minimizing the variables causing those feelings and emotions. And if we’re a leader, our job is to reduce the variables for our teams, make more constants, and clear a path for them to do their best work.

How? I’m so happy you asked!

Focus on the most important pieces of our work that we can control. There is so much out of our control right now. By keeping the focus on the super important work that we can control, the negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions can and will be minimized. Clearing the path for our bodies and minds to function optimally.

Full disclaimer: it’s taken me a while to return to this point. During this time, I’ve been flat out upset, angry, sad, frustrated, deflated and probably more I can’t even think of right now. I asked myself why, why do I feel this way? And it’s because I feel like a kid stuck between two arguing parents being sent to my room. So, I’ve stopped watching the news, focused on my family, clients, and calling out all of the (still) very beautiful things in our lives. Oh, and started working with a certified health coach. There is a lot we can learn from at any given point in life, especially and even now. What beauty comes out of these ashes is fully dependent on our mindset and willingness to learn in any scenario.

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Knowledge Worker v. Line Worker

There is a distinct difference between the two. There’s also a distinct difference between knowledge work and line work.

I think this was called out very well and articulated nicely in the Masters of Scale Rapid Response podcast with Diane Hoskins, Co-CEO of Gensler. The podcast is titled: Healthy Offices and the Myth of Remote-Work Productivity. http://listen.meditativestory.com/HoskinsRREp?c=oO3LDVPmiANz-gofX29NrQ&h=39b2eda9f2ebf6334

As we move through our day, I think it’s imperative we know what is “line work” activity and what is “knowledge work” activity.

Line work: (i.e. create a plan)

  1. Cleaning up CRM
  2. Writing a cadence
  3. Changing our LI profile picture
  4. Creating a schedule template or any template at all to fill in
  5. Creating a “route schedule” to visit our customers

Knowledge work: (i.e. execute against the plan)

  1. Executing an effective outbound communication effort (email, LinkedIn, video call, etc.) against a clean list in CRM
  2. Filling in the cadence with meaningful dialogue/verbiage
  3. Updating our LI profile so it resonates with others
  4. Filling in the template we created with information that matters and that we can control
  5. Making the visits with our customers meaningful and impactful

What do you think? What about your day is “line work” and what is “knowledge work”? And how much of it? Creating a clear path for the two is crucial. Why? Because we get out of flow if we try to fill in the QBR template while we’re creating it. Or our reps get frustrated when they’re in the flow of calls, but have to stop and do the line work of finding the right contact info. We’re leveraging two different parts of the brain when it comes to line v. knowledge work. It’s imperative to work on one at a time.