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Think of your CRM as one big alarm clock…an alarm clock with a 90-day timer. In that light, your CRM is all about the WHEN.

WHEN is your opportunity in the pipeline going to close?

Today, craft questions you will ask your customers that qualify the WHEN.

Try this… “Hey Joe, we’ve been working toward a deal for a few <weeks/months>…by your estimation, when will this deal happen?”

And this… “When will you know about the when, Joe?” (Don’t let buyers give you ambiguous answers about the timeline of their decision.)

This Champion development exercise is easy:

1. List your running client and A prospect account names.

2. Review all KDM names on those accounts and nominate those you feel are potential Champions.

3. ID those individuals by these filters:
a) Shared interests (table stakes, but a good start),
b) How can you be of value to them? What specific action can you DO to help these prospective Champs?
c) What’s their biggest headache that you can help with?

This will require you to dig deep to understand their personal and professional motivations…and that’s the point.

Sometimes you wake up on Saturday and the info, data, and work stimuli are still coursing through your veins. It’s hard to just shut it off.

Well, use this downtime to get the week out of your head by journaling. And while you might keep a WINS Journal – regularly espoused by MySalesDay – that’s for all the good stuff that happens to you in The Sales Life, Mondays through Fridays.

What about the non-work stuff in your life?

Journaling always offers a valuable perspective on life’s complexities.

And, journaling is also a reminder that you – and everyone else – are just a dot on our big spinning marble.

A sobering thought? Yes. But a freeing one, too.

Today, in your pitch meetings, proactively address objections and obstacles.

If you’re in a 1:1 meeting, try the surfacing approach: “What part of our offering presents a problem that we have to work through?”

If you’re in a group meeting, try the seeding method and suggest the objection you know they’re thinking about: “Often, buyers like you have challenges around the blah blah part of our offering…what are your thoughts on that?”

Whatever you do, don’t let a meeting go by without proactively addressing objections and problems. The longer the buyer sits with their negative perceptions, the lower your chances are of scoring.

Schedule a lunch date with your manager to discuss any tricky strategic issues you’re facing. Tablecloth meals are best for those convos; no Chipotle….too fast, too chaotic.

Bring your most challenging issues to the meeting, and, of course, pre-notify your manager of your agenda.

Never drop a pile of dung on your manager’s lap…they’re not good at turning piles into gold. Thus, you need to bring strategic thinking and solution ideas with you to lunch.

Knock down a few of those meetings each quarter, and you’ll earn the right to hit Chipotle together for informal discussions.
You’ll benefit when your manager is a strategic partner.

The best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit.

Today, practice your meeting close technique.

Here’s your formula going forward:

“We’ve achieved a lot today, but obviously we need another meeting.” And then…

1. Qualify their interest. “What is the most appealing part of what we discussed today?” (After asking, don’t move a muscle – especially the ones in your mouth).

2. Summarize your value prop and qualify them again, “What about our value prop interests you the most?”

3. Determine next steps. This includes actions assigned to the customer, e.g. asking for intros inside the org.

Instead of playing NYT’s Connections on your break today, try this exercise to help you manage any selling angst that may be residing inside your brain.

Write down everything and anything that causes your stomach to gurgle.

Second, write a sentence about their root cause – and weight – to help you define the context of these issues.

Last: jot down a sentence on how you can control and combat these distractions. And then, focus your energies there.

If need be, talk to your manager or BFF seller about these gnats flying around your head…communication always helps.

Today, listen closely to what your buyer says, and immediately decide how generic and ambiguous their answers are.

Start with this basic move: “Tell me more.”

If you’ve got that one down, then focus your qualifying questions on clarifying context and weight.

Context: “I’m glad you like our proposal…what specifically is appealing to you?”

Weight: “It’s good to hear feedback about that feature you like, how important is it to you?”

If you want to run far away from your work and mentally escape, you must do the things that bring you joy and release.

If watching Apple+ for hours does that for you, great! Do it, and feel no shame.

If you love listening to an audiobook while walking your dog in the woods, fantastic.

Decide what brings you the release you need this weekend, and then do it.

Nadia was the first gymnast to successfully perform an aerial cartwheel-back handspring series on the balance beam.

What is your aerial cartwheel-back handspring?

While you should always focus on “development areas”, don’t forget about your strengths. Today, think about one of your superpowers and plot a way to push it even further. Toward a 10.

Aspire to be the person your manager turns to when needing a model for that one special skill that everyone else STINKS AT! Not you.