Question To The Sales World... Are You Paying Attention To Your Clients?

"Attention really is a currency that you exchange to get something back: awareness, understanding or connection."

Susan Pearse

Throughout our time together... I encourage you to think about your clients and continually ask yourself...

Do I have a deep understanding of their needs, wants and desires?

How well connected am I inside their business?

What you pay attention to today determines your future

Are you paying attention to your clients?

Sustaining meaningful value in the minds of your clients requires persistence, extreme focus and radical attention.

Think about your clients:

• What’s happening right now within their business?
• What changes if any may be happening to them right now?
• What problems may they be facing?
• What difficulties are they encountering in their marketplace?

Simply put, what you pay attention to gets done and what you continue to pay attention to grows in importance.

Whether you are a business owner, senior executive, sales leader or sales individual...

Are you paying attention to the mission critical activities that will drive your business forward?

How much time might you be wasting in paying attention to things holding you back?

What and are your attention stealers? Can you name them?

When you pay attention to your clients, not merely listening to them, but focusing in on them, you will discover more than you can imagine.

WHAT ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO?

“Wherever your mind goes, your body follows. Wherever your thoughts go, your life follows.”

Benjamin P. Hardy

Translated into sales context... wherever your sales mind goes, your body follows and so does your results. Wherever your thoughts go, your sales life follows.

What are you focusing on to grow your business? Where is all of this leading you?

To quote Dan Sullivan, 

“Your eyes can only see and your ears can only hear what your brain is looking for.”

Relating this to sales, I will refer to Dandapani, a Hindu priest, entrepreneur, international speaker and former monk believes,

“If I took a watering can and watered the garden bed; would the weeds grow or the flowers grow? Both. Water has no ability to discriminate between the weeds and the flowers. Whatever you water grows.”

At this very moment, your sales life is a direct reflection of the thoughts, decisions, and seeds you have previously planted.

What are you watering?

As you're reading this, I ask you... Would you like something different?

Then I encourage you to plant something different. Do something different and take control over your client garden.

If you would like to have an ever-flowing sales garden, then I ask you... what seeds are you planting in your relational garden?

EVERYDAY MATTERS

“What you do with your attention is in the end what you do with your life.”

John Green

How can you apply this quote to your sales life?

Simple, your client relationships and sales growth are either in a state of growth or a state of decay.

What you're willing to plant today will begin to express itself today, tomorrow and into the future. And this is why everyday matters. Every choice matters.

You have a daily choice; shall I water my relational garden? Shall I fertilize my relational garden? Shall I tend to the weeds in my relational garden?

What client relational generating activities are you paying attention to?

What client revenue generating activities are you paying attention to?

You could spend your sales day distracted and disorganized or you could spend it engaged and excited.

The choice is yours as to what you pay attention to?

PAYING ATTENTION, ENHANCE YOUR BUSINESS.

"Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention."

Jim Rohn

Are you giving your clients the attention needed to grow the relationship, grow their business and to enhance your sales results?

The ways in which you pay attention to your clients will determine the experiences they have. Conversely, these experiences will determine the quality of your sales lives.

Ultimately this all impacts your ability to grow your business.

Again, I am going to ask you... What are you paying attention to?

Continue to follow along with me as I take you back in time... All of us are going back to the year 1890, a mere 130 plus years ago, as I introduce to you the book, The Principles of Psychology, Vol.1, by William James.

Inside the book he wrote a powerful statement packed with meaning: “My experience is what I agree to attend to.”

Therefore, if your experiences are based on what you agree to attend to, then the same can be applied to your clients and the experiences they have with you, or what they attend to with you.

The simple act of paying attention and the way in which it's performed, James cites, is what sets geniuses apart from ordinary people.

Could the simple act of paying attention be what sets sales professionals apart from sales reps?

To further reinforce the importance of paying attention, we will go back to William James,

"Sustained attention is the easier, the richer in acquisitions and the fresher and more original the mind. In such minds, subjects bud and sprout and grow. At every moment, they please by a new consequence and rivet the attention afresh. But an intellect unfurnished with materials, stagnant, unoriginal, will hardly be likely to consider any subject long."

People, this quote is over 130 years old and is massively applicable to the sales world today.

Sustained attention over time is easier. Are you bringing fresh ideas, new perspectives and originality to your clients; to bud, sprout and grow the relationship?

Is every interaction with your clients riveting and afresh? Think about it.

Let's flip this on its head,

An intellect (let's call it what it is, a sales rep) unfurnished with materials, stagnant, and unoriginal, will hardly keep the attention of their clients.

Attention combined with experiences will determine if your clients stay or if they go elsewhere.

STOP TAKING YOUR CLIENTS FOR GRANTED, PAY ATTENTION TO THEM!

"Life is a precious gift - a gift we often take for granted until it is threatened."

Lecrae

Taking your clients for granted and not paying attention to them is an awful mistake. One that will come back to haunt you, mark my word.

Unfortunately, and for many in sales when they get bit by the "complacency bug" it inflicts venom that takes salespeople down the path of finger-pointing and excuse making.

Taking your clients for granted is equivalent to shutting down your business.

Given the fierce competition vying for your client's business, they will not stick around for long when complacency sets in.

According to research conducted by Microsoft and cited inside the Nextiva blog - "100 Essential Customer Service Statistics and Trends for 2022, update: June 3rd, 2021."

"68% of people around the world have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor customer service experience."

Let's apply this quote to the sales world but with a twist...

Could 68% of your clients stop doing business with you due to a poor experience or lack of attention by you?

YOUR CLIENTS ARE A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE IF YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THEM

"Success can lead to complacency, and complacency is the greatest enemy of success."

Brian Tracy

It can be said that success breeds mediocrity.

Can this be said about your client relationships and what you've been paying attention to?

I can't stress enough how important all of this is to the health of your sales career.

So, do I have your attention yet? Are you starting to smell what I have been cooking?

If you've been paying attention to your clients, you will be able to answer the following...

Are you delivering value to your clients?

Do I have you thinking about all of this in a different manner?

I truly believe it’s more effective to act as if no one knows you or recognizes the value you bring because this will make you show it every day.

Would you know the last time you met with one of your clients and asked them, "What value do my services, products or solutions create for you?" I am waiting for your answer, still waiting, still waiting; just what I suspected - it has been a while or quite frankly, never.

I encourage you to think about this question "What does value add look like to your clients?" I bet your clients want to increase sales and grow their client base, correct?

Ever ask your clients, "What does a great sales and client experience look like?"

You see, when you pay attention to your clients, when you truly care and give a rip about your clients, and when you're willing to ask them questions that nobody has asked them before, you get real answers that provide real relational growth.

In Conclusion

What are you paying attention to?

Is this what you need to be paying attention to?

Is it time to plant some new seeds?

What you plant today becomes your tomorrow, the next day, and into the future.

So, plant with intention. Pay attention and care for your garden, and that be your clients.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.