Time Management

In most cases, the difference between top producer sales people and mediocre sales people is time management!

Time is a salesperson's most precious resources!

A goal is a dream with a deadline!

1. Speed, the defining factor!
Every second counts in sales because there is and always will be:
• Someone in great need of your product
• The competition fast on your trail
• A company becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their current vendor

Once you lose time, you can't bring it back!

2. Manage time in terms of minutes versus hours or days
Top sales producers think of time in terms of minutes, while the average salesperson thinks of time in terms of hours or days.

Set your schedule or activities in terms of minutes!

3. Common activities that mismanage time
• Unqualified target list
• Scheduling sales calls ineffectively
• Mailing Information (slow) versus meeting (fast)
• Spending longer than necessary on client rapport-building
• Personal Calls
• Technology Interruptions: telephone, cell-phone, email
• Cluttered desk
• Losing things
• Lack of priorities
• Visitors

4. Use Self-Questioning to evaluate how you are using your time
Ask yourself:
• Is this the best use of my time right now?
• Is this activity bringing me closer or farther away from my next customer?
• Is this task urgent? Is this task important?
• What obstacles am I creating by procrastinating?

5. Difference between Important and urgent
Important-the activity brings me closer to my goals
Urgent-the activity is demanding me to do it now.

a. Important and Urgent: Do it now! It's a crisis.
b. Important, but not urgent: Find time to work on these and work on them ahead of schedule, it will bring you so much closer to your goals.
c. Not important, but urgent: Find someone else to do it.
d. Not important, not urgent: then why are you doing it?

6. Self-Discipline Command Phrases
• Stop, Stop! I am commanding myself to stop.
• Write the activity you're stopping to do on your "to-do" list to remember to do it later.
• Shift focus on what is most important and most urgent-the best use of my time right now.

7. Parkinson's Law
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

If you plan to do something (example, write a proposal) in 30 minutes, it'll take you 30 minutes to do it. But if you give yourself 1 hour to do it, it'll actually take you one hour to do it.

Application: Challenge yourself to accomplish things faster and in shorter time.

8. Clutter
Clutter piles are stress sources and distracting.

"Out of sight; out of mind."

9. To-Do List
• Number each to-do item
• Start each with an action verb (Call John…)
• Write personal and business to-dos on the same list
• Write to-do list at the same time each day
• Cross off-items that are done and say "Yes!"
• Write deadlines and back up deadlines on each to do
• Do not rewrite entire to-do list each day. Carry forward key to-dos.

10. Phone Zones
A phone zone is about reserving a block of your time solely dedicated to making outbound sales calls. The time frame could be anytime from six minutes to six hours. Ideally one to three hours is best to build momentum.

"Top sales produces report that the phone zone is one of the best uses of their time and energy and leads to significant increases in their sales."

11. Time Management is really self management
It takes Awareness, Discipline, and Practice!

The results: less stress, increased sales, and increased commissions.

12. Want more sales? Increase your sales calls!
More phone calls = more appointments

More appointments = more sales