Do Not Multitask!

Multitasking - The Biggest Productivity Killer

How many times have you heard that in order to be effective and productive, you need to be able to multitask?  Employers always want their people multitask. Why? So that you can do the work of more people and they only have to pay for one person. Everyone says this is a great skill to have. What a load of crap.

Multitasking means that someone is going to give you something to do and you need to learn how to juggle this with other requests as well as your own things. I mean how many times have you spent the whole day juggling a bunch of tasks but only to feel at the end of the day that you have accomplished very little and that tomorrow you are going to have to go back to work again and do the same routine again.

"But I have been so busy", you say to yourself. Well, you probably have been busy running off your feet but don't get caught in the illusion that being busy equals being productive.

To me, multitasking has the end result of doing a lot of things badly or at best mediocre. This is because you are having to divide your attention up so that you can give a little bit of energy and brain power to a whole lot of things as opposed to giving your full attention to one thing at a time. Multitasking also opens you up for distraction. Once you are distracted, it can take you a while to shift your brain back into the frame of what is needed to complete the original task again. Darting your brain backwards and forwards so many time during the day only really serves to leave you more exhausted further into the day which means your productivity and of course motivation drops leaving you to do more tasks badly.

In order to get around multitasking and start achieving some really meaningful accomplishments, you need to start getting good at prioritizing. If you want to have the satisfaction of really feeling that you have been productive and achieved something in your day, then you need to get clear in your head the things that are most important. Ask yourself, 'what key activities, do I need to complete or at least start today, that is going to give me the greatest sense of achievement at the end of the day'?

My solution to the multitasking is to instead, focus on a few things and do them well.

An easy way to do this is to try this experiment for a day. Write on a piece of paper or in your calendar/to do list the 3 or 4 key things that will produce results. Something that you know when accomplished will make you feel proud and a sense of achievement. Then decide how much time you want to allocate to this and block out that time in your calendar so that you can solely dedicate to working on that one specific task at a time.

So stop believing the myth that multitasking makes you more productive. Reclaim your day and put an end to 'being extremely busy but not actually achieving anything'. Learn to focus on the key things that are going to produce real results, results that makes you sit back at the end of the day with the immense feeling that you were effective and productive. And don't forget, busy does not equal productive.

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Want to make more sales? Then stop selling right now!

Yeah yeah, I know that it is your job to sell but how to do you stop selling and still make a living? Here are some easy tips to get more sales without actually 'selling'.

First of all you need to understand this - customers hate being sold to... but they love to buy. In order to stop selling, you need to change your focus.

Crucial Tip 1: Be the Expert
Instead of putting all your energies into making the sale and risk scaring off the customer, you need to be seen as the expert who is there to help them solve their problem. Being seen as the expert will help you add tremendous value to your product or service. There is nothing worse than getting the "I don't know" response from a sales person when you have asked them a question about their product.

So in order to be the expert, you must have superior knowledge of the products you are selling. Knowing everything there is to know about your products including all the features and benefits inside and out will help you build the bridge between your customer's problem and your solution. The more questions you can answer, the least amount of objections you will have to deal with in order to close the deal. Being seen as the expert will go a long way in building your customer's trust and when there is trust, a sale is much easier to make.

Crucial Tip 2: Shut Your Mouth!
When you are selling, you are talking and when you are doing all the talking, you are not listening and when you are not listening, you have no idea how to help solve your customer's problem because you have not uncovered their needs (what a mouthful). In order to really understand what their need, you have to ask them some investigative questions.

Crucial Tip 3: Be the Investigator 
Instead of launching into your well-prepared sales-pitch, take the time to ask your customer a number of investigative questions. Ask them if it is alright if you ask them a couple of questions just so that you can understand exactly what they are looking for and can therefore give them the best solution. Find out what there current situation is, what they dislike about it, what pain is it causing them, what their ideal situation would be and what are the things that are really the most important to them? Try to find out what their buying requirements are such as key features they are looking for and what this means to them as well as budget. Asking well-thought out questions will also tell you just how serious they are about buying or if their are just tyre-kicking. Now, really listen to the responses that they give you, take the time and don't rush into that sales pitch.

Crucial Tip 4: Take the Lead
Once you have asked the necessary questions and done all the listening , it is now time to lead the customer to making a commitment, solving their problem and concluding the transaction. Your job here is to now take them by the hand (metaphorically I mean, please don't take their hand... they tend to run away when you do this) and lead them to the sale. You see, while they were answering your questions and doing most of the talking and you were doing the listening,  you should have been making links in your head to the product or range of products or services that will best fit their needs. Now here is your chance to impress them with your expertise. As you introduce each product or service that is a match, you must illustrate how each of the features of your product addresses their various requirements and issues. By doing this, you get to impress them on how well you have taken notice of their needs and that they are valued.  In this way you have lead to customer to the solution. See, no mention of sales here but in essence this is exactly what you have done. Simple.

So, stop being just a sales person and improve your sales success rate by changing your focus and being the expert that helps customers solve their issues. Take the time to ask the leading questions to really uncover their pain and needs, listen to their responses and then take them by the hand and lead them to your solution.

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