In the world of business, no matter how successful one becomes, time is one thing that there is not enough of.
The majority of successful salespeople that I know and have worked with practice disciplined time management by spending the majority of their time on tasks that make them money andlittle time on things that are a waste of time.
In the field of sales, there is not enough time in the day to complete all the work that needs to be done and as a result, time management can be one of the keys to producing consistent results.
There are a few very clear and practical tactics that you can deploy to not only improve productivity, but to also help to decrease stress at the same time.
Here are a 11 tips that will help you to get a better picture of how you’ll have to manage your time in order to be successful in the world of sales.
- Plan your day before you leave your office or before you hit the sack.
- Block out the time from 8:00 AM through 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM through 5:00 PM to call prospective customers.
- You won’t waste your time when cold calling on Thursday.
- Don’t let anyone or anything distract you from these time tables.
- Have a plan “B” then return to plan “A” as soon as possible.
- Avoid the water cooler. That’s what Happy Hour is for.
- Learn to say “No”, don’t over commit, and outsource when you can.
- If you must take a call during your sales time, limit it to two-minutes max.
- Check and send emails before 9:00 AM, between Noon and 1:00 PM, and after 5:00 PM.
- Write your To-do list on a pad of paper and prioritize your list down to the five most important tasks needed to be completed. Find a software program as an alternative.
- Reevaluate your time management system regularly.
By applying the time management tips and skills in this chapter you can optimize your efforts to ensure that you concentrate as much of your time and energy as possible on the high payoff tasks. This ensures that you achieve the greatest benefit possible with the limited amount of time available to you.
Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement consulting firm that specializes in the hospitality and travel verticals.
Great list! Although, I am a little lost about why Thursdays are considered productive cold-call days?
I was under the impression that Tuesday was the best day to call.
Dr. James Oldroyd from the Kellogg School of Management recently examined the electronic logs of more than a million cold calls, made by thousands of sales professionals inside around 50 companies. He then applied statistical measurements to extract patterns of success and failure.
He discovered that Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead. In fact, it is almost 20 percent better than Friday, which is the worst day. All the other days fall somewhere in between.
I like this! My priority list (which changes daily) is the only way I ever accomplish anything…if I don’t have it right in front of me, it’s too easy to get lost in emails and busy-work.
I know how you feel. I have so many electronic reminders constantly going off that it sometimes is a challenge to keep momentum going in the right direction.
Time is time,manage it properly..Good tips.