Working the Hourglass
Time Management for Salespeople
By Jeffrey Hansler, CSP
The
hourglass of time is both friend and foe to the salesperson.
Each second that passes, removes another second of your
life. Your
net worth of time is this moment, this "NOW", just
the same as any millionaire or desolate on the street. Time
is the only true equalizer. Success and successful
time management begin with training your mind to utilize
every moment to the best of your ability.
As
a salesperson, you experience, sell, and use time. As
a result, you must take a holistic approach to improve
time
management. It is up to you to constantly improve your
relationship with time and your management of time.
A
moment wasted to anxiety or procrastination is gone forever.
You
may have a tendency to thrive on urgency, because you
sell urgency. As a salesperson, you want the prospect
to make a decision in this moment, this "NOW". You
successfully use time pressure to gain a decision. Often,
procrastination creates this pressure.
Procrastination
seems to have lead to last minute insights, dramatic
adaptations in presentations, and spectacular
and exciting sales. For many, procrastination and
a failure to plan seem to have become a friend not eagerly
abandoned.
A
fear may be that if you begin to plan for the future,
you will lose sight of the importance and the urgency
of the "NOW". It
is true, if you remove the urgency, without retaining the
excitement and enthusiasm of the sale, it can cost you money.
The
key to implementing successful time management is to
become conscious of your thought process.
Realize that
excitement, not procrastination, is your friend.
Separate the two. Deliver excitement and you
will have the
ingredients
of success without the weight of procrastination
to slow you down.
As
a salesperson, you sell your time to companies to make
money for them and for yourself. Time
is your
most important asset. Your time utilization
along with your
selling skills determines your income.
As
a salesperson, you use the element of time to make sales.
You create immediacy and deadlines
to sell your
wares today
rather
than tomorrow. You have buyers explore their
past
experiences and future desires to guide them
to a decision and make
the sale. As a successful salesperson, you
have control of a time-machine to transport
a buyer
into their
past memories
and their dreams of the future.
Realizing
that your decisions affect not only how you work but
how you sell should
be your
primary
motivator
to successfully
managing time. To create a successful
program, create a time management system that benefits
you and your
mind-frame when selling.
The
following are key elements of time management for you
as a salesperson.
TURN
GOALS INTO PROJECTS.
Free-flow your thoughts, dreams, and
ideas to paper. From these, determine
the sales
goals that excite
you most and
set time frames for goal accomplishment.
Be sure to retain (or document) all
the excitement
and
rewards that reaching those goals will
deliver.
Turn each sales goal into a project
by listing all the tools necessary:
people
and places
involved, investment, time,
equipment required, and return-on-investment
(monetary, recognition, or personal
satisfaction, etc.).
If you have more than five projects,
prioritize them by a criteria that
fits your needs
and choose a maximum
of
4 or
5 to work on now. Save other projects
to replace completed ones.
BREAK
UP YOUR FIVE
ACTIVE PROJECTS
INTO WORKABLE
STEPS.
Workable steps allow you to feel
the satisfaction of accomplishing
a portion
of the project.
The size or
estimated amount
of time for these steps should be
based on your available time and
current
schedule. Adjustments may be necessary
as you experiment with scheduling.
Set priorities for those steps and
schedule them on your calendar system.
As you
complete the
steps, be
sure
to reward yourself.
GROUP
ACTIVITIES TO GAIN AND CAPITALIZE ON MOMENTUM.
Organize your daily and weekly
activities into time blocks of
congruent activities.
For example,
prospecting
and
closing have different tempos.
You can maximize results by
working with this reality instead
of against it. As a telemarketer,
much
success will
come from
prospecting for four hours straight
each Monday through Thursday,
taking care of paperwork and mailings
at the end of
each day,
and
completing your call-back closings
on Friday.
WORK THE PLAN.
Do what you have outlined and monitor
your behavior in execution of the
plan. Watch
for procrastination,
resistance
to execution, and a failure to
continue planning ahead.
Critical points to remember are
to delegate everything not directly
involving selling
skills, commit
to follow-up on
yourself and your goal completion
dates, and control distractions.
It's not
easy, but these
are the
things the most successful
salespeople do.
Control the timing of your thoughts.
There is the selling time, when
you live in the "NOW", and the planing
time. Group not only your activities, but your thoughts.
Start and end your day with planning.
Use this planning time to build
your desire
and
appetite
for the day's
activities. Use your planning to
excite you and carry that excitement
into the "NOW".
The key to understanding and working
the hourglass is not a one shot
deal, it is
a constant building
and refining
of skills and understanding from
now until ....eternity.
#
# # # #
Jeffrey
Hansler is a professional speaker, author, and consultant.
He is a frequent speaker at association events and is the
author of Sell Little Red Hen! Sell! He can be reached at jhansler@oxfordco.com.
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2004 Jeffrey Hansler All rights reserved |
