Most salespeople go at 100 mph. Constant sales activity, ranging from research to customer phone calls and meetings to networking to developing proposals, we never seem to have a spare minute.
But are we making the most of our time?
Are we leveraging our sales activity to the maximum for both ourselves and our business?
If we take a step back and look at specific sales roles it can be quite revealing. Most salespeople will tend to do what they’ve always done. And do it how they’ve always done it. And all salespeople will always say that they’re busy.
But what does this mean for sales effectiveness?
There are only so many hours in the week. Obvious statement! To make the most of our limited time, we believe it’s worth spending a few minutes on a Monday morning to plan our sales activity for the week. For example:
- You know that you have certain commitments in the upcoming week, and you know roughly how long they will take.
- If you are in a business where you have to react to incoming customer sales or service enquiries you’ll know when your busy periods occur.
- You’ll also be aware of other pressure periods such as lunchtimes.
So don’t plan outbound sales activities during those times!
Determine your objectives for the week then plan how you will complete them. For example:
Objective: Research and contact 20 previous clients.
Diary: Tuesday 4pm – 5pm. Research
Wednesday 10am – midday. Make calls.
The benefits of planning the activity, and putting it in your diary, are twofold. First, it will keep the activity at the front of your mind and ensure that you give it adequate planning and preparation and second, it will make sure you do it!
By putting it in your diary you’re physically allocating time to complete the activity. You wouldn’t fail to turn up to a customer interview, or a doctor’s appointment, so don’t fail to complete activity that you committed to doing at the start of the week.
As the old saying goes – ‘fail to plan, plan to fail!’