Playing a different game by Mark Blezard

So, imagine you are a few weeks away from a sales target – and you are coming up short! What should you do? Work harder? Burn the midnight oil? No. Change your game and do something differently.

Sales executives are notorious for banging their head against brick walls. We get stuck in a rut, a groove of doing things the way they used to work. The same old pitch, templated emails, answering to prompts in your diary to certain actions at regular old times.

Mixing things up has more than one benefit. If you always do your cold calls at a certain time you will certainly miss the people who have regular activities during this slot. If you use the same old emails to follow up a call you will never learn the art of improvement.

But the biggest gain in 'changing your game' comes from what you learn about selling your product. It forces you to look at what you sell in a different light. You'll find new markets, applications, and USPs. Think about it, there is a reason why jockeys use blinkers on their horse. Take yours off!