I have seen this so many times!

Show me a focused salesperson -- one who isn't aware of what else is taking place in the office this very moment because he is so focused on getting his sales work completed; one who won't stop to take a break until she makes all of the required calls; one who won't go to sleep at night until all of the appropriate follow ups, responses, CRM updates, paperwork and details have been finished.

Salespeople like these are usually more successful, regardless of how well developed their skills. And when their discipline extends to strong desire and commitment for success in sales, they are likely to be equally intent on making sure they execute their sales process as designed.

Salespeople who are easily distracted can become similarly distracted within the sales process, navigating by the look of the scenery rather than following the map. Distractable salespeople also tend to find themselves working on other, less important work, and falling behind on the business development side of sales - the stuff you are paying them to do and expecting them to accomplish.

So what can you do if you have salespeople who are more distracted than focused?

1. Manage them much more closely
2. Replace them
3. Make sure their priorities for each day are the correct priorities
4. Develop more appropriate daily KPI's for those salespeople
5. Make focus a condition for continued employment
6. Call them out when they get distracted
7. Remove distractions
8. Provide an assistant so they have fewer distractions