Time Management - It's Critical for Effective Sales

If there is one enemy you have in the world of sales, it is TIME. Time will help you or hurt you depending on your ability to manage it properly.  How you spend your time throughout the day will determine the level of success you will record at sales meetings.  While it’s important to talk with troubled customers, and to explain industry trends to customers, and even to have great conversations with wonderful rapport, the truth is . . . is all about sales. Your boss probably doesn’t care how great your conversation was – they are more interested in whether or not it will turn into a sale.

It’s all about SALES
TIPS TO PREPARE  YOUR DAY
Our best case scenario for proper time management:   Arrive to work ready and pumped
Have the customers you plan to call in a queue, hopefully computerized in this day and age

•      Get your coffee, sit down and start dialing

•      Keep dialing all morning – when you hang up from a call, start dialing the next

•   Don’t waste a lot of time entering notes and long dissertations about how the call went

•   Have your script memorized so it sounds natural and do not deviate from it – ever

•   Don’t get up and talk to others

•   Don’t bother other sales people and ask them about how their day is going

•   Don’t run into your boss’ office and tell him you got a great lead

•   Try to close every call you make – three times – ask for the order

•   Schedule an action item when you’re done – callback, send literature, send quote

•   Don’t send literature right after a call and don’t stop to put together a quote 
•   Keep dialing and prospecting

Here's why:

It will always be about sales because that’s how companies pay salaries, commissions, bonuses; it’s what pays for the computers and office equipment we use, all the supplies that we utilize, and the roof over our heads.
 It’s important that customers are happy. It’s important that you are happy and look forward to coming in each day. It’s important to earn a good living and buy the things in life that we want and need. What it does mean is that you must portion your time carefully.

With this  call-model, you'll make lots of calls and improve your chances of finding a customer with a need you can fill.  It's a numbers game; more numbers mean more results. You have to stay the course though.  

This call-model drives up your enthusiasm; the customer will “hear” it. If your not successful, don't get angry, rather leave the customer with the impression that they should buy from you now or someone else will.  

• Be thorough: 

• Be steadfast

• Ask for the sale

• Don't get all wishy-washy - just go for it

• Don't go off your script the moment a customer shows interest

That's just your morning. You can go to lunch with the satisfaction you put in a solid morning. Relax a bit, talk with colleagues, share war stories, talk about closing deals. And don't talk about the one that got away - it's a downer and drags everyone else into the much of poor mental attitude.  

Come back from lunch and get your quotes sent out;  send out the literature you promised in the morning.  

If you have other deals (and you should) to call back, get them out of the way now too.  Maybe brainstorm with a manager as to what you can say or do to close the deal. 

For the remaining part of the day, hit the phones again and a half-hour before you leave, get out all remaining literature and quotes. Then, conclude the day by setting up for the next day’s calls. Yes, tomorrow you do it all over again. The foundation of success is the effort you put in be maximize your time and spend it wisely.    

Measure your success - It's key.   

At the end of every week, do the following:

1.  Total the number of calls you made
2.  Total the number of actual pitches you made  
3.  Total the number of quotes you sent out  
4.  Add up the number and amount of sales you closed

For example:  

You made 95 calls
You pitched (in full, that means asking for the order)  25 times
You sent out 10 quotes 
You closed 2 deals

Your ratio is 95:2  

It means you need to make 95 calls to get 2 sales.  Keep track of this ratio each week.  It's a great motivator and predictor of success.

After a short time, maybe a month or so, the ratio will stabilize.  Now, you can work on parts of your call program, try to get more calls in, try to complete more presentation, try to get more quotes out, try to improve your closing ability.  The ratio will show you how you're doing.  

Remember, there are no no speed limits on the Sales Highway.