FBO: Minimize Distractions and Stay Focused
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This part of the “FBO” or “For Bloggers Only” series is actually NOT JUST for bloggers, but FOR ALL entrepreneurs, employees, and nonprofit organizations seeking to raise funds to support their goals.
If you want millions of viewers, readers, customers, clients, members, etc., then you’ll want to follow along as we go through, one by one, the rainmaking secrets provided by Jeffrey J. Fox in his book How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients
MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS AND STAY FOCUSED
A. FOX’S TIP NO. 10 FOR ALL RAINMAKERS
Fox’s Tip No. 10 for how to become a great salesperson, or rainmaker, is the practical tip: “Don’t drink coffee on a sales call.” As he explains in his book:
A sales call is a sales call. It’s not teatime at the Rainbow Room. You are not there to “wake up and smell the coffee.” You are there to do business.
The duration of the average sales call is eighteen to twenty minutes. You do not have time to go get the coffee, pour the coffee, stir in the cream, or drink the coffee. You have to maximize time and concentrate on your objective. Drinking coffee wastes time and interferes with your presentation. You can’t take notes with a coffee cup in your hand.
A sales call was scheduled three months in advance. It was difficult to get an appointment with the harried decision maker who was responsible for buying high-ticket (over $300,000 a copy) computer peripheral packages. The salesperson and a consultant to his company met for breakfast to preplan the sales call. When offered, the salesperson said he did not drink coffee.
The duo arrived promptly and was met by the prospective customer, the Computer Center Manager. The customer was friendly and graciously asked if his guests would like some coffee. “That would be great,” said the salesperson who did not drink coffee. So off they trudged to the coffee room, and began the ritual. They returned to the customer’s office. The salesperson put his coffee on the worktable, but accidentally set the cup on a blueprint-marking pen. The coffee spilled over the worktable. The customer scrambled to save the blueprints. Paper towels were needed.
The sales call ultimately restarted. Ten minutes into the call everything looked promising: The customer was in agreement, he had a need for the package, and he had the budget. There was a knock on the door and someone from the Computer Center anxiously told the manager that “one of the main servers is in a degraded mode!” The prospective customer jumped to his feet and, while politely excusing himself, invited the salesperson to phone in a few weeks to see if they could reschedule. And out the door vanished the customer … and the sale.
Coffee killed that sale.
If the customer asks if you want coffee, say “no, thank you” and get to work.
And don’t drink coffee on the plane, or in the car, on the way to a sales call. A spill can kill.
B. APPLYING FOX’S TIP NO. 10 TO BLOGGERS
If you want to become an A-list blogger, apply Fox’s Tip No. 10 above to your blogging business by minimizing distractions and staying focused. What’s the equivalent of your “sales call” and your “coffee” before and during that “call?”
[Note: This is a chance to test your own ability to “think outside the box.” See if you can take Fox’s advice above meant for salespeople and fundraiser rainmakers and find an analogy for it that applies to A-list blogger rainmakers, like you and I want to be. Why should you bother? Taking a tool meant for one type of task and using it to perform a completely different, unintended, and, arguably, in this case, a completely unanticipated task, effectively, is the kind of inventiveness and ingenuity that is at the heart of all successful entrepreneurs. So, always take advantage of opportunities to try to solve mental puzzles. Even if you think you suck at such things, give them a try! Then, after really trying, if you still can’t solve it, don’t just dismiss it as frivolous. Find out what the answer is. Then, try to understand the logic of the solution, whether you agree with it or not, whether you think it’s silly or stupid or crazy. Just accept it as the answer. Come up with a better one if you can, now that you know the answer. Finally, burn the entire experience into your brain so that when you encounter any similar problems in the future—and you will!—you’ll at least have one more way to try to solve them.]
This is how I figured out what my “sales calls” and my “coffee distractions” are. I asked myself, “Is it writing my posts?” No, it can’t be. I certainly allow myself to take virtually as many breaks as I want while writing posts to slowly let the words and ideas come together in my head as I try to capture my feelings. This usually takes a few hours; but, sometimes, it can take a few days. More importantly, this whole process is mostly an interaction with myself (though I certainly imagine my readers and how they’ll react to it if I write it this way as opposed to that). So, it has to be something else. If not my posts, then my emails? My comments? All of these are methods of communicating with my readers; and, again, I can certainly take “coffee breaks” from these, too, even in the middle of writing one, and for as long as I want, theoretically. So, what can possibly be my “sales calls?” Drafting posts, emails, and comments pretty much covers everything I do as a blogger.
Then, it hit me. That last review or final proofread of the email, comment, or post—if I don’t focus during that “meeting” with myself and the recipient or readers of that communication, when I press the “send,” “submit” or “publish” button, the “sales call” is over. Did I get the “sale?” That depends on whether I let myself get distracted enough during my final proofreading to miss something important. Like too many glaring typos. Or, some major point I originally wanted to make but completely forgot to include. What’s my “coffee?” Mental multi-tasking. Listening to my favorite music. Boiling water for tea. Being annoyed at the street traffic noise. Feeling too relieved that I finally finished the post and trusting that I proof-read it enough times already—when I haven’t. That’s how I spill coffee all over myself during my sales calls! Then, that botched sales call floats in cyberspace forever. I can always correct the errors on my own blog by editing them as soon as I find them (and I do!), but I can never change the copies of them that were already cut and pasted onto other blogs, or my emails already sent, or my comments already posted on other blogs. So, a blogger’s coffee stains tend to be permanent.
Recognizing the importance of Fox’s advice not to drink coffee immediately before or during sales calls, I resolve to stay focused—and avoid my usual distractions—immediately before and during my final review or proof-reading of any emails, comments, and posts. Why? To become an A-list blogger, of course!
CONCLUSION
How’d you do with your analogy? Anything close to mine? Or, something totally different? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! Great minds dare to differ! ; )
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October 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Well, good idea !
My idea was, that the sales call is your whole text you have written. You try to sell it to your reader, but when you dont stick to your topic and/or write something unnecessary, the reader may skip the part and dont reading a important point or even may skip your whole text. In this case he could think that your text is boring, that your blog is boring and wont subscribe!
But if you leave out the “coffee” and stick to the really important points which binds your readers to your text, they’ll get the point you are writing about and will recognize your article as an golden one, worthwhile to subscribe or digg. And isn’t this what you want to sell at the end? Another happy reader, who will visit your blog again.
see you!
Michael
October 7th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Excellent point, Michael! Thank you so much for sharing it with us! And, great to have you as a new reader! : )