“
You have to focus on focusing” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 631
How do you focus?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is a very selfish tip, because I’m offering it up in the context of the Sales Success Summit, but I’m almost always selfish on your behalf, and the idea is to be more focused in the moment. To be present in the things that you’re doing. So for those of you who are participating in the Summit I hope that you’ll really be fully there. That you’ll shut out all of the distractions that come from email, and notifications on your phone and really absorb the content and participate in the conversation. Of course this doesn’t just apply to the Summit of course. I’m sure you’ve had the experience where you were multi tasking in a web meeting. You were telling yourself that you could pay attention, but when somebody called our your name and asked you a question you just couldn’t. That’s just what happens when you get exposed, and get caught, but it happens all the time. You’re missing so much because you’re not focused, your not actually present. Your distracted and likely not being productive in the meeting or particularly effective in the work that you’re trying to do on the side. It really comes down to making a choice. If you don’t need to pay attention to a meeting. Did you really need to be there in the first place? There’s a difference between present, like when your teacher used to take roll call in class and you’d answer “here” or “present.” That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s one thing to be physically there. To be present, it’s another to be fully present. To be focused. To really be listening. To be engaged. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I’m perfect here. There are plenty of deep dive technical calls that somebody else on my team was running where I didn’t really have a meaningful role that I completely checked out of. Sometimes that might actually be OK, but like with most things and feel like I advocate for this all of the time, and that’s the idea of making the intentional choice. If you’re choosing to disengage, then acknowledge that, admit that and do it, but if you need to be there… Then be there. Be all there. Bring your focus and your attention and don’t let yourself get distracted. In this way I feel like attention is a bit like a muscle. If you haven’t regularly been giving your full attention, it can be hard to do it for very long. You have to train it, you have to work on it. This is going to sound funny, but you have to focus on focusing. I know, because I sometimes slip into these habits and I have to remind myself how important and valuable it is to be there. Because I’m there for whoever I’m talking to. Heck this even applies to your friends or to your parents even. My mom’s a talker and it can be easy to do something else while if I’m honest I’m pretending to listen. That’s not really fair to the other person and that’s my point. When you make these intentional choices you make that choice not just for yourself, but probably even more importantly for the people you’re with. Who want to be heard, who need to be heard. So hear them. Alright, I’m done. This is starting to feel a bit preachy. It must be Sunday.
Just something I hope you’ll strongly consider as we get ready to experience this year’s Sales Success Summit together. If you haven’t registered yet you still can, unless of course you’re listening to this after October 13th. In which case you can still go to Top1Summit.com to learn about what’s coming next. One quick point though. If you haven’t yet registered and you sign-up during the Summit, it could take up to 30 minutes before you’ll get access. So the earlier you sign-up the better and I hope to see you there.
Thanks for listening, and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!