Feel like you've lost your media sales mojo? You can get it back and build on your strengths!
George Brandes, at desk. Bain News Service, publisher. Library of Congress.

Losing your edge is easy to do. You drift into complacency when it used to seem so easy to stay focused and on task. The sound of so many ringing bells in your busy over-extended life draws you in so many disparate directions.

Just ask people who sell exercise equipment. They make a living off this reality. Many of you reading this blog, like me, have a basement full of exercise bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals. It was going to save so much time not having to drive to the gym. You were certain you would be more dedicated and exercise more, because now it would be so easy. Yet we lose focus, intensity, and slowly we get out of good habits and slide into bad ones.

This same challenge faces those in media sales all the time. Just a couple of months ago we were consistently making goal, finding and developing new business relationships and revenues, and receiving sold financial rewards for these efforts. And then something happened. We lost our way and the results, we are now realizing, are troublesome. We didn’t do it on purpose; it just happened.

So the next question is how do you get back on track? Here are some things to consider if you find want to regain that positive mojo:

1. Realize you haven’t forgotten how to sell, you have just somehow deviated from your old form. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and was sure I “had lost it,” whatever “it” was. Well, in the calming light of day, I realized this was not the case. Use media sales analytics software to see your activities in perspective and track from last year to this year so you are viewing empirical data and not just relying on your perceptions, which may or not be accurate.
2. Take a look at what are you doing to determine what you're doing differently than when you had been hitting all cylinders. Have you suffered a loss of focus and intensity in your daily work that has dulled your edge? The reality is that successful media sales people usually aren't successful if they only work the 9 to 5 shift. Are you committing the time it takes to get back on track? Are you spending your time and energy on accounts that you know will be productive?
3. Are you preparing for each day and even each call as you need to? Do you plan your day in advance so you hit the ground running in the morning? I found that if I was not rehearsing my calls in my head and seeing the call before it even happened, I was not as confident and prepared as I should be. Are you doing what you need to in preparation before every call to communicate to your potential client that you are someone they would want to work with?
4. Finally, analyze your activities, opportunities, clients, and outcomes. Sometimes the numbers will tell you where you have drifted off course. Do you have enough in your funnel? What types of ideas have you been presenting? What clients have you called on recently who have not proved to be as productive as before? Is your closing ratio getting lower for some reason? If your employer provides you with a CRM (contact relationship management) program, use it to help you track your daily and weekly input and output and analyze how this may have changed recently.

The good news is, you have been successful before. It is a little harder than riding a bike, but with honest introspection and analysis you can get your mojo back.

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Is it possible that you're wasting time and energy on some of your accounts? Use this great tool to see if it's even worth the bother: