Why Can’t These People Focus?

My Canon 1D Mark III camera has two settings for focus: auto-focus and manual focus. With auto-focus, the camera automatically uses 45 points in the field of vision to determine where to focus. An option is to set single or multiple points that can be chosen to have it focus on. This is a handy setting when you don’t want the camera to just focus on what’s directly in front of it. Like the camera, sellers have a field of vision. In my experience, sellers do not have a problem with focus. One seller used to focus for hours on her Facebook page, another would focus for hours on his eBay auctions. The ability to focus was not a problem for those sellers; determining what to focus on was. In a world of multi-station ownership, digital offerings, special packages, special promotions, etc., it can be very difficult for a seller to know what to focus on. I recall “rolling out” the latest package or incentive program and having sellers ask, “do you want us to focus on this, or the one you gave us last week?” Not knowing what to focus on doesn’t just frustrate the manager, it frustrates the seller. As advertising salespeople, our single point of focus should be on helping our clients become “known before they are needed,” so they sell more products and services. If we focus on achieving great success for our clients, then knowing which package, promotion or digital resource makes the most sense is easy. If your “setting” is “auto-focus,” you will focus on whatever is in front of you. (Squirrel!) Change the setting and determine where in the field of vision you need to focus. You’ve heard us say this many times before: Sales is a repeatable process. Do you believe in the process? If you do, trust that the process will work, and focus on solving your client’s problems, and you’ll see your problems fade away.