Procrastination: The Bad Guy In Your Sales Journey

Procrastination: "The action of delaying or postponing something"


The above mentioned is the reason why there was no blog post here last month. I guess this phenomenon happens to everyone, it does happen to me all the time. Since I have had this realization many times in the past, I decided that now I should sit and act immediately.

This tendency to delay things can cause serious harm when it comes to sales. It creates a sense of guilt and anxiety and procrastinating does not make the task go away.Salespeople often tend to procrastinate the following activities
  • Making calls for new prospects
  • Returning phone calls or emails
  • Informing the client that you cannot satisfy their requirement and many more

What causes the salesperson to procrastinate?

  • You want to avoid the discomfort that might be caused by that action
  • You feel it is really simple, so you can do it at a later time
  • Self doubt. You are unsure of completing the task. So you rather not start it
  • You want to avoid the negative outcome that you expect to get
  • You feel you cannot perfect the task so you'll wait for the right moment, which may not come at all!
  • And... You are too BUSY!!!
We often don't realize that our procrastination is affecting our performance. By the time we have that realization it would have been too late. 

How do you deal with it?


Reluctance of doing an activity and delaying it, is a reflection of the fear we have or the discomfort we feel towards rejection. So we need to be prepared to face our fears. And first and foremost you should remind and convince yourself that it is not ok to delay things and you need to do something about it as soon as possible.
  • Do not anticipate how your prospects are going to respond. Be open to any response from him/her. Sometimes your assumptions might be wrong
  • Set specific time for the work that you tend to avoid and stick to it.
  • Always keeps aside the time you are most energetic for performing the work that you avoid. The more tired you are, the tendency to procrastinate will be higher.
Like rotten food, longer the work remains, more foul it becomes. Walt Disney has said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing". I took the first step . Now it's your chance...

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