Where is Your Attention?
Success in sales requires focusing on others

“Pay attention!” Ever hear those words when you were growing up? Hundreds of times, right? And you probably thought you were being scolded.

Actually, when you were told to “pay attention,” you were getting one of life’s most valuable lessons. Now you’re grown up, and I bet you still haven’t learned that lesson. Why? Because you’re probably more focused on yourself than you are on the world around you. And when you’re focused on yourself – how you look, what you’re wearing, and what other people think of you – you are diverting your “focus energy” away from your success.

When you’re focused, you have an intense purpose. But when you waste that focus on yourself, you’ll miss the opportunities around you and stay “out of focus.”

The easiest way to “be focused” is to “be aware.” Be aware of what is around you – and be aware of who is around you. Sounds simple, but it means you have to change selfish and insecure to open-minded and self-confident.

If you’re looking to be a master seller, you must understand and capitalize on where you are, whom you meet, and what you say.

If you’re at an event, your job is to keep your “antennas up” until you meet the key players. You do whatever it takes. You may have to ask someone, “Where’s the big cheese?” You may have to read every nametag in the room. You may have to stay until you’re the only person left. You may even have to stand and wait until the conversation the “big cheese” is having with someone else is finished. But if your antennas are in a bottle of beer or with your friends or looking for more food, they’re pointed in the wrong direction. So besides losing, you’ll lose to someone whose antennas are pointed in the right direction.

It’s important for you to understand that selling yourself is not about tactics. Selling is not about techniques. Selling is about focusing and engaging the person you are focused on in a creative verbal exchange. And the only way to master focus is to keep your antennas up. Are your antennas up?

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.

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