Healthy 5-a-Day
Those battling to prevent an obesity epidemic currently promote the virtues of having 5 portions of fruit and veg each and every day. The results are self-evidently staggering for your overall health and Body Mass Index should you keep to just such a routine.
Inspired by this dramatically positive impact, the politically orientated London think-tank Foresight set about creating a similar regimen to precipitate mental wellbeing and happiness. What struck me immediately is that such thinking can easily be extended to the world of sales. Here are the 5 ‘happy’ Musts:
- Connect
- Activity
- Curiosity
- Learning
- Giving
It doesn’t take a quantum leap to attach sales actions to each of those. For instance, the first is all about seeking and making more social connections. It’s simple to see the parallels between people in general being happier with the more people that they interact with, and the larger the network the salesperson administers to the point of having a huge funnel which leads to a healthy order book and commission statement.
So the obvious jumps out. What are the 5 “fruit ‘n veg” a rep must eat each day to stay healthy?
Taking the Foresight Five as our cue, here’s an idea for starters…
Connect: Engage a brand new prospect
Activity: Genuinely progress a current opportunity
Curiosity: Open dialogue with people beyond the apparent buying cycle somewhere
Learning: Sharpen a particular sales skill of your own
Giving: Allow your expertise to benefit an existing client in some way
(nb: ‘closing’ isn’t there as a discrete action of course, because it’s all about the process, rather than the outcome)