The idea of reducing interference starts with the sales leader. Sales leaders who openly show stress are often unwitting carriers of stress and interference. They actually make it worse by bringing fear into the workplace.

Alan Fine has done a lot of work around the idea of breakthrough coaching. One idea he mentions is "reducing interference."

Alan maintains that the way to achieve breakthrough performance is not to focus on new things, or what people don't already know, but instead to focus on what they do know. That's because the biggest obstacle to breakthrough performance isn't that people don't know what to do, they don't do what they know. Alan contends that the best way to do that is to create focused attention.

If you think about what salespeople might be fearful of, the following comes to mind:

• Not making quota
• Not closing a big deal
• Not getting that promotion
• Might lose their job
• Won't be able to pay their mortgage
• That in general, bad things might happen

Dealing with that kind of fear while also trying to focus on customers becomes very challenging. Sales leaders have the ability to reduce that interference. And as they do, performance goes up. Everybody wins.