One of my goals this year is to put more white space into my diary. White space is time in your working life where you have nothing planned. A chance to recharge, do some big picture thinking, solve some nagging problems, get some fresh air, relieve the stress and give yourself more options.
This made me think about white space and how the idea might be useful is selling and coaching because the world is just too full of noise, much of it created by salespeople and coaches.
Perhaps we could create welcome some silence during our selling and coaching by:
- Asking power questions when we’re coaching, you know, the ones where they say “that’s a good question”
- Listening to customers and not thinking about anything else whilst we’re doing so, come on, hands up who is thinking of their next question here.
- Encouraging self discovery from our coachees
- Becoming very comfortable with a little silence in our meetings or calls, I call these silent seconds
- Asking for the business or do a really good trial close, then go quiet
- Going silent when we need to think of a really good solution to a customer’s challenge
The list goes on. Here’s 3 cheers to more white space in sales and coaching.
I mentioned my white space ideas to my wife this morning. “Let me know when you have them” she replied “and I’ll fill them up with jobs around the house for you”.
So much for my white space goals
