Mercuri School of Cognitive Skills for Sales People
Are you biased for action – A quick check
Which of the following is true of you?
- In meetings, you make notes, list action points and confirm what is expected from you
- You make decisions even when time and information available seem less than sufficient
- You approach problems with a sense of urgency and work with timelines in mind
- You are happy if you can finish a job reasonably well and don’t aim for perfection always
- You are armed with a To Do list all the time and review it when you close the day
If you answered 3 or more of these with a ‘Yes’ you certainly have a bias for action
What exactly is Bias for Action and Execution?
A tendency favouring immediate action on issues to achieve quick results is referred to as a Bias for Action and Execution. People with an action bias prefer to act instead of waiting even if information or time available appears insufficient. Management thinkers Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal describe it to mean not just a preference for action but also determination and persistence to block all distractions and overcome difficulties
Why is Bias for Action often a critical success secret?
- Possessing huge amounts of knowledge without action on it is of no value.
- Bias for action bridges the gap between knowing and doing.
- Taking action strengthens our conviction in what we are doing. So our odds of success go up dramatically.
- Doing things, with experiments and even small attempts, leads to rapid learning
What makes action orientation and speed very important for Sales
According to Harvard Business research, businesses responding to Customer enquiries within an hour are almost 7 times more likely to have conversations with decision-makers
In Sales, often, Speed = Success. When it comes to selling, the early bird always gets the worm. With recent advances in technology, Ecommerce has reset Customer expectations. Customers expect response speeds that match online transactions which in turn demand a strong bias for action and execution
Barriers to Developing a Bias for Action and strategies to overcome them
Studies have identified several barriers to developing a bias for action and execution. One commonly observed barrier, for example, is the need that many of us feel to do everything all at once. This makes even a simple project feel so overwhelming that we end up hesitating to act. The proven strategy to break this is to learn to make lists and chunk all projects into discrete manageable bits
Ways to Cultivate Bias for Action
Bias for action and execution is a learnable cognitive skill. It can be cultivated with regular practice of strategies that foster action over waiting. Carrying a sense of urgency, for instance, helps cultivate an action bias. Work philosophy built around the belief that “it is never too early to act” steadily strengthens execution capabilities
