To do a to do list
Thursday, August 12, 2004
As part of my work with Uvendia over the past year I've had to learn about sales. Sales people, sales methodologies, sales training. Part of this learning has involved reading sales books - not the sort of reading I would ever have expected to have done. Needless to say, I've learned things. Lots of things. One of the most surprising lessons has been just how interesting the theory of sales can be.
Seriously.
I now believe that we all sell all the time. In relationships, in our jobs, in just about every interaction you can think of. Most of us have a rather jaundiced view of sales. We tend to equate it with sleazy used-car salesmen or spotty youths doing their stint in the local Halfords a Saturday job. (I know - I was a spotty youth with a Saturday job at Halfords.)
There's a lot more to it. The more I've become involved with the brains behind Uvendia - in particular a guy called Colin Wilson, of whom more later - the more I've discovered about the psycholgy of sales and tools such as NLP.
Colin has developed a unique sales process that takes a new look at the way sales pipelines are managed. Uvendia not only deliver training around this process but they have created a software tool that lets the sales professional put the process into practice.
Colin and I are hoping to write a book on pipeline management over the coming months. I'll keep you posted.
I enjoy learning new things. And I enjoy picking up tips and tools from unlikely sources. I started reading Richard Denny's 'Selling to Win' as part of my continued background reading into selling and liked his simple idea of creating a to do list for the following day at the end of the previous day. Not only do you list the tasks but you prioritise them. First thing next day you pick up the list, look at number 1 and work on it until it is finished.
Obviously, the idea of a to do list is not new. I've created thousands. Like a lot of people I spend more time creating the list than actually following through on the tasks. And like most people I tend to try and create a list first thing in the morning during time I should be trying to do something more productive.
I liked the idea, as I said, and the upshot is that I have done this for a few days now and found it makes a huge difference, not only to getting things done but to how I feel about the day when it's over.
As a dedicated procrastinator I'm hoping this could be the simple piece of magic that cures me of that once and for all. I'll let you know.
Seriously.
I now believe that we all sell all the time. In relationships, in our jobs, in just about every interaction you can think of. Most of us have a rather jaundiced view of sales. We tend to equate it with sleazy used-car salesmen or spotty youths doing their stint in the local Halfords a Saturday job. (I know - I was a spotty youth with a Saturday job at Halfords.)
There's a lot more to it. The more I've become involved with the brains behind Uvendia - in particular a guy called Colin Wilson, of whom more later - the more I've discovered about the psycholgy of sales and tools such as NLP.
Colin has developed a unique sales process that takes a new look at the way sales pipelines are managed. Uvendia not only deliver training around this process but they have created a software tool that lets the sales professional put the process into practice.
Colin and I are hoping to write a book on pipeline management over the coming months. I'll keep you posted.
I enjoy learning new things. And I enjoy picking up tips and tools from unlikely sources. I started reading Richard Denny's 'Selling to Win' as part of my continued background reading into selling and liked his simple idea of creating a to do list for the following day at the end of the previous day. Not only do you list the tasks but you prioritise them. First thing next day you pick up the list, look at number 1 and work on it until it is finished.
Obviously, the idea of a to do list is not new. I've created thousands. Like a lot of people I spend more time creating the list than actually following through on the tasks. And like most people I tend to try and create a list first thing in the morning during time I should be trying to do something more productive.
I liked the idea, as I said, and the upshot is that I have done this for a few days now and found it makes a huge difference, not only to getting things done but to how I feel about the day when it's over.
As a dedicated procrastinator I'm hoping this could be the simple piece of magic that cures me of that once and for all. I'll let you know.
