BY Tim Londergan
It takes energy to fill your pipeline, communicate with customers and deal with department heads; but occasionally boredom sets in. Static situations and redundant tasks can be mind-numbing. But here’s a sales skills tip: When feeling bored, stop and find an alternate use of your mind.
It turns out that trying to suppress boredom leads to further ineffectiveness. Studies show that boredom in one task can negatively affect subsequent tasks you may try to take on.
According to research, the way to fend off boredom is to stagger mundane tasks with meaningful tasks throughout the day.
The Best Sales Skills Tips Include a Workaround for Boredom
Like many physical, yet subtle indicators, boredom sends us a warning. Just as exhaustion and pain are signs of overactivity, boredom is telling us to find a mental change-up. Failing to do so inhibits your concentration, leads to mind-wandering and obstructs productivity.
Researchers from Notre Dame’s college of business studied how boredom upsets productivity; Heidi Mitchell commented on wsj.com. Study subjects wore special watches to report their level of boredom, concentration and their productivity. Additionally, they watched brief videos which presented dreary or exciting images.
Further, participants were required to write essays: one on an important subject and the other non-critical. Significantly, this exercise was designed to find the ‘task-carry-over-effects’ of boredom. Hence, the finding that boredom extends well beyond a single task!
Intermingle Your Tasks When Day Planning
The authors found that powering through boring tasks in one sitting is not advantageous. Noticeably, there is very little energy transfer from our mundane tasks. Mind-wandering and low productivity will follow.
“The spillover effect”
In the study, researchers found that if the first task was boring, the next suffered as well. Accordingly, the subsequent task received even less enthusiasm and therefore, productivity continued to decrease. So, a top sales skills tip would be to intermingle mundane and more meaningful tasks throughout your day.
Be Creative with Your Downtime
Propel BusinessWorks suggests using downtime effectively to enhance productivity and prepare you for future opportunities. Here are a few of their creative ways to make the most of these slower periods:
Reconnect with past clients
Check in with former clients and gather feedback or ask for referrals. This may also be an opportunity to upsell accessories or services.
Organization and housekeeping
Sometimes a physical overhaul can give you a mental boost. Cleaning up your CRM or updating client profiles can increase your future productivity.
Continuing education
Professional development is a great sales skills tip and can inspire new strategies to freshen your sales approach.
Deepen your product knowledge
Often, product development can get ahead of our own experience. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with new features, benefits and industry trends can be fruitful.
Conduct competitive research
Tune into your clients’ social media posts or study competitors’ product reviews. The more you know the fine points of competitor claims the better prepared you are to discuss with prospects.
Adopt a “No-Time-For-Boredom” Mindset
Sean Huckstep, writing for SalesRabbit offers 11 strategies for staying motivated in sales. Interestingly, the most compelling for me are the ones that suggest a change of mindset.
Successful salespeople visualize the deeper impact of their work and connect their activities to a greater purpose. Seeing your efforts contribute to end user satisfaction, improved lives or better health can be a strong motivator. Your positive attitude is your superpower.
Further, an optimistic mindset allows you to celebrate victories and acknowledge your progress — and that of your team. By implementing these sales skills tips, you can cultivate a more motivated and resilient approach to your sales career. And doing so can ultimately lead to greater success and satisfaction.
Photo by George Milton on Pexels.com