Focus Pocus Focusing your sales efforts

Watching Mark McGwire hit his record-breaking home run, you could almost feel his intense focus on the ball as it sped toward him. Beyond McGwire's tremendous upper-body strength and dedication to the game, focus played a key role in his ability to break the home run record for a single season.

Focus is a major problem for many new business owners, who often find themselves pulled in multiple directions. To be a big winner in business, you'll need to have something in common with sports superstars like McGwire: the ability to focus your efforts on clearly defined objectives and stay the course despite constant distractions. Here are three ways to bring your sales into focus:

1. Successful entrepreneurs don't wait for the right prospects to find them. They put programs in place to win the business they need to get their companies on the fast track. Who are your ideal clients? If you're targeting too many different types of groups, you may be unwittingly fragmenting your marketing program and compromising its effectiveness. Worse yet, if you're accepting anyone who comes your way, you're sacrificing your ability to build the type of business that fits your vision, while letting the competitors who actively pursue the plum accounts walk away with the most desirable work.