Monday, January 10, 2011

New research on forming habits

Productive habits are the backbone of effective selling behavior. New research by Psychologist Phillippa Lally of University College London suggests that habits take a lot longer than the 21 days that previous research claimed.

Lally asked 96 undergraduates to form a habit in 12 weeks by repeating daily a healthy behavior such as drinking a glass of water with lunch.

Her research showed that forming habits took on average nine and a half weeks (I wonder if Mickey Rourke or Kim Basinger were amongst the undergraduates?). Some took several months to form a habit.

The good news is that missing one or two days of repetition will not impede the process.

10 Jan 2011 23:45:12 | Sales Management, Selling

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The truly smart always act a little dumb A businessman was talking with his procurement manager friend, when they both noticed a goofy-looking fellow bouncing down the sidewalk. The friend whispered, "That's Tommy, one of the stupidest salespeople you'll ever meet. Here, I'll show you." "Hey Tommy! Come here!" yelled the procurement manager. Tommy came bouncing over "Hi Mr. Williams!" The procurement manager pulled out a rusty Euro coin and a shiny 50 cent piece and told Tommy he could keep the one of his choice. Tommy looked long and hard at the Euro and 50 cent coins and then quickly snapped the 50 cent from the procurement manager's hand. Mr Williams looked at the businessman and said, "See, I told you." A short while later, the businessman caught up with Tommy and asked him why he chose the 50 cent. Tommy looked at him in the eye and said, "If I take the Euro, the game is over."
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Caveat Vendor (Seller Beware) If you think that decision making is a straight process in an unstraight world, you’ll fail more often than you’ll succeed. Many years ago I sold into a well know manufacturer of mobile phones, pagers and walkie-talkies. One of the major projects I remember my customer undertaking was the outsourcing of their entire logistics function to a third party vendor.

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