Getting time on your side

by Rick Phillips

Can you spare a moment? If not, take the time to read the ideas below. Many claim time management is simple; just use common sense. Unfortunately, tackling a human-behavior issue like time management with common sense is like taking on a stealth bomber with a sling shot.

Attacking the habits
Most of us are conditioned by a lifetime of bad habits and poor time discipline. The good news is we can learn to manage our selling time and increase our effectiveness.

Before you begin, you must ask if you are ready to commit to establishing the disciplines necessary to make this change? If not, don’t waste any more time reading this. If yes, the following 20 ideas will help.

Idea #1
Track your time. Identify how you use your time by keeping a log of your activities for two weeks. Write down what you do every 15 minutes. Seeing where your time goes is an eye-opening experience.

Idea #2
Plan your time. But above all, work your plan. Even a flawed plan, put in action, will create more results than a great plan you never put to work. Get busy, inertia is your biggest enemy.

Idea #3
Just say no to anything that does not contribute to sales. It is too easy to waste time on the urgent instead of the really important.

Idea #4
Spend your time wisely. Don’t waste your time on unprofitable accounts. Weed out your least profitable accounts. Spend that time with accounts that deserve your attention and will reward it with more profitable sales.

Idea #5
Know the value of your time. Decide how much money you want to make this year and divide that by the total number of hours you will work. That will tell you how much your time will be worth if you meet your income goal. You will need that figure for the next step.

Idea #6
Know the value of each customer. Calculate your weekly income from each customer and the time devoted to earning that much commission from that customer (the time it takes to get to customer A until you leave and are on your way to customer B). If your income target is $60 per hour and you spent 30 minutes to earn $60, this customer is a +2 customer. If you spent an hour and only earned $30, this customer would rate a -2 this week.

Idea #7
Maximize your penetration of existing accounts. It is much easier and less time-consuming to increase sales to  omeone who is already buying than it is to find a new customer.

Idea #8
Remember, you can’t save time, you can only use it more effectively. Arrange your territory so your calls are geographically logical. 

Idea #9
If you can’t follow Idea No. 8, then buy a radar detector, accelerate on yellow, drive on sidewalks and plan your route any way you please.

Idea #10
Keep a history of calls and conversations. Don’t rely on your memory. Document all calls in your planner or customer action folder.

Idea #11
Have a selling goal for each call. You should have a plan to either sell or show a new product or program or have a strategy to make progress toward a sale on each call. Progress may be asking questions that gather information about a potential waste problem. Don’t just take an order, sell something.

Idea #12
Set deadlines for your selling strategies.

Idea #13
Use non-selling time to do non-selling activities. The time to prepare for calls is when you can’t be in front of the customer. If the customer needs information, find it when you can’t be talking to another prospect or customer.

Idea #14
Measure your performance. Ask yourself what things you did today that moved you closer to your selling goals?

Idea #15
Establish a quiet time each day to plan your next day’s selling activities. Review your planner, identify tomorrow’s tasks and prepare for them in advance.

Idea #16
Make time to drive safely, courteously and obey traffic. When you get pulled over for your abhorrent driving behavior, try speeding up the judicial process by offering a $20 bill to the traffic enforcement officer.

Idea #17
Brush your teeth in the shower. I have even grown to enjoy shaving in the shower.

Idea #18
Discuss this article with your manager. Ask for his or her assessment of your time management skills and ideas for improvement.

Idea #19
Don’t get defensive. Your managers and others see how you are, not how you think you are.

Idea #20
Use a cellular phone to keep up with messages, confirm appointments, get accurate directions and let your next appointment know you are on your way, lost or caught in traffic. Your phone also puts you in touch with help when you experience a breakdown.

Getting time on your side begins with breaking self-destructive, time-wasting habits and applying common sense. Remember, all of us are allotted the same number of hours each day. Some make the hours count while others just count them.

Rick Phillips is a management, sales and customer service speaker and trainer based in New Orleans. He is president of Phillips Sales and Staff Development (PSSD), a nationally recognized training firm he founded in 1984. Contact Rick at: . 

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