How to Move From Habit to Ritual and Improve Your Print Sales

What is ritual?

Ritual is the point where you no longer have to think about what you are doing. Important practices and activities have become second nature. When you have reached ritual stage in any area of your life, you are functioning at peak efficiency.

Let’s look at an example of this

When I started using social media as a sales tool, I had to remember to actively engage with my contacts. This wasn’t something that I was used to doing. As a result, it didn’t come naturally to me. I had to think about what to do and when to do it really hard.

In order to help me carry out the right activity at the right times, I created a daily task in my Todoist task management software. It reminded me that I had to reach out and help someone on social media. As this was on my task list, I no longer had to actively remember to carry this out. Instead, I had a constant reminder that this was something I should be doing regularly. This didn’t stop it being a struggle, but it did mean that I never forgot to do it.

As I started reaching out and being helpful on social media more regularly, it became less of an effort. I got used to carrying this activity out regularly.

I knew exactly what I should look out for in other peoples’ social media activity that meant that there was an opportunity for me to help them. The daily task became less of an effort. However, I still needed a reminder to make sure that I actually carried the task out. I had moved from learning or training into habit.

These days I do not have to think about being nice or helpful on social media. It is second nature. In fact, I have even taken the daily reminder off my task list. I know that I will be constantly reaching out and helping people in my social media network. It took me a few months to get to this stage, even once this activity became a habit. But now it has become second nature. I have moved from habit to ritual.

Sales people need to carry out the right activities in the same way

They must be able to focus on the right activities, and the right reactions, without thinking. The right sales projects should be second nature. Ritual should be your goal for all of your sales activities.

The trouble is, most of us are stuck in the routines of managing day-to-day activities that divert us from our sales targets. Moving to the point where we prioritize our sales activities in the way that we wish seems a dream goal. It seems far removed from reality.

So how do we get to ritual?

Some of the more basic 12-week sales projects I train clients in are an excellent way to develop sales rituals that may not yet exist in your company. Let’s take the example of a 12-week sales project that is based on referrals. You may set out a three-month plan to create a new specific amount of new business from your existing network. By making sure that you ask customers and other people in your network on a regular basis for introductions, you have a very good chance of winning a substantial amount of new business.

Is this the sort of sales activity that should stop after three months? Of course not! This sort of 12-week sales project makes you think about what you should be carrying out on a regular basis as part of your everyday sales activity. It then makes sure that you carry these activities out in a planned and structured way. You move from having to think about asking for referrals to asking for referrals as a habit. By the end of the 12-week sales project, asking for referrals has often become a ritual.

After three months are up, your planning focus will move onto a new project. Asking for referrals should still be a regular part of your weekly sales plan. However, it will now be much easier to carry out because you have spent three months specifically focusing on this activity. The 12-week sales project has helped you move from planning, through habit to ritual.

You can use this same strategy to make sure that you or your team start putting all sorts of basic sales principles into place.

Here’s how this works in real life

I mentored the owner of a small printing company. There were no sales basics in place at this company. The owner enjoyed coming up with lots of new marketing plans. However, he wasn’t carrying out the sales fundamentals.

We put in place a 12-week sales project whereby he had to call a certain number of lapsed clients every single day. This allowed him to update his lapsed client list. He was able to take off a lot of companies that were no longer in existence. He was also able to remove those that no longer used print. However, this activity also led to the reactivation of a good number of clients. In addition, it filled up the sales diary with calls to be made at various points in the year when print projects were coming up for these clients.

Contacting lapsed clients is now part of the regular sales activity for the company.

Find out how to implement 12-week sales plans and develop ritual 

Check out my e-book “How To Succeed At Print Sales” where I share a simple step-by-step guide to creating practical (and surprisingly simple) sales plans.

PS Test out how effective your sales people are at selling print

Download my free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” right now at https://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/ You’ll also receive my regular “Views from the print buyer” bulletin, full of ideas on how to sell print effectively. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.