Sales Tip: Sharpening Your Sales Tools

One of my client’s sales people called today and left me a message. He explained how he had a tough night with personal stuff and the morning had not gone much better. His day was heading down hill which included his sales production.  He then made a choice to “sharpen his axe” or in his case his mind and sales tools. He pulled off the road and pulled out a book and read for 20 minutes.  He said his day turned completely around and productivity went back up in the afternoon.

Habit #7 of Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is The Principle of Balanced Renewal. It is about taking the time out to renew yourself spiritually, physically, mentally and socially/emotionally. The Axe Sharpening story tells of a woodsman who got so busy trying to out produce a fellow worker he never took time to sharpen his axe all day. The other man took breaks during the day to sharpen his axe and at the end of the day had out produced the busy woodsman while spending less time actually chopping.

If you are finding yourself working harder with fewer results, it could be you need to take time to stop selling and renew yourself.

Rene Zamora – rene@salesmanagernow.com