Slow Selling isn’t the only ‘Slow’ movement.
There are slow cities, slow food, slow relationships, slow sex and slow parenting, to mention just a few.
In fact there’s a worldwide network of people and organisations promoting slowing down in all areas of life, for happier and healthier results.
Exactly as we suggest in the ideas and systems of ‘Slow Selling’.
One of the leading promoters and drivers of the worldwide slow movement is Carl Honoré. He has written 4 books on the subject, that are genuinely bestselling and is widely seen as the ‘voice of the slow movement’.
I was very fortunate, therefore when he agreed to let me interview him.
The full interview is on my podcast.
Carl is at pains to point out that ‘Slowness’ isn’t about doing everything slowly … it’s about slowing down enough to work out what is the best pace, and way, to conduct ourselves in order to be more fulfilled AND more productive.
It’s what they call in Italy the ‘tempo gusto’.
He also points out that, on average, each one of us wastes over 2 hours every day by reacting immediately to the constant barrage of interruptions and by poor planning of time.
And, of course, this is something that’s unsustainable in most situations, but particularly when you’re running an independent business!
Here are some key points we talked about, to help you slow down in order to have a much more productive (and far less stressful) day.
- Chunking your time: plan your day in chunks according to your schedule and what you want to get achieved. Put aside time to deal with the distractions like messages and email, then turn them off at other times to ensure you don’t get distracted.
- ‘Push pause’ with yourself (and all your people): who needs to be contactable when? It’s definitely not ‘all the time’. Make sure everyone has uninterrupted time to focus on important work.
- Get round the table to discuss all the above points and agree together on better structuring your days, and ensure you all agree a protocol to stick to it!
- Manage your clients’ expectations through excellent communication: far better to say to them: ‘I’ll need to take a few days to think about this and ensure I get back to you with a fully thought out answer’, than to rush things and either mess up or have to back track later.
And one small tip that everyone can do immediately:
- When you’re next in conversation with anyone, put your phones away and out of sight (as well as silenced, or, even better, switched off). That way you’ll have a higher quality and more in depth conversation!
To listen to the Podcast on this subject, please click below:
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(You’ll also get a free ebook – The 7 Deadly Sins of Sales – and 3 exclusive videos about how to grow business without sacrificing your principles or your profits).
To learn more about Carl Honoré and his new ‘bootcamp’ service, please go to www.carlhonore.info
Slow Selling is a UK based not for profit organisation for leaders and managers in independent businesses.
Our systems deliver peace of mind and confidence to caring leaders and managers who have limited time and resources, and want to grow their business … all without sacrificing principles or profits.
To find out more, please click here
