Make Time, Not Excuses
Copyright © 2005 Mark Dembo and Thomas J. Baskind
DEI/Lexien of Greater New York
http://www.lexien.com/
There are four primary activities that successful salespeople
engage in on an ongoing basis. These are Prospecting (45% of
time), Presenting (20%), Product Knowledge/Malleability (20%),
and Professional and Personal Development (15%).
Recently we were presenting this information in a workshop on
Prospect Management, when one of the participants raised his hand
and said: “That’s great. But you just don’t understand. We
spend so much of our time having to service our existing clients
and putting out fires, there’s no way to have that much time for
prospecting and all this other stuff.”
Sound like something you face?
We understand, because we’re out there selling too. Just like
you, we go out and find new prospects, show them how we can help
them, deal with client service, make sure training materials show
up where they’re supposed to be, etc… And, we spend a good deal
of time consulting, conducting workshops, and working with
clients.
Like most sales professionals, we, too, have to juggle my time
to focus on actually selling and prospecting.
The key is effective time planning.
Time planning is really more than time management. You really
can’t manage time at all when you think about it – no matter what
we do time marches on. No matter what we do there are 52 weeks
in a year, 24 hours in day, and 60 minutes in an hour. Try as we
might, we just ain’t gonna change that. So, let’s not bemoan
that we don’t have enough time – the time you spend complaining
about not having enough time is time you could spend on something
more productive and rewarding. (Ever notice that the people who
complain the most about not having enough time are usually the
ones getting the least amount done? Think about it and observe.)
So, we can’t control time itself, but what we can control is how
we use our time. In fact, when you come right down to it, our use
of own time is the ONLY thing in life that we really have
complete control over. Every minute of every day you are making
a choice, whether consciously or not, over how you use your time.
The key to effective time planning is to make conscious decisions
over how you spend this most valuable resource.
Here are some tips to help you plan and utilize your time more
effectively:
Be Obsessive About Planning:
Everybody these days uses some sort of planner whether electronic
or paper; that’s a personal choice and either one is fine. But,
real effective planning is more than making a daily to-do list.
Plan Weekly: Look at everything you have going on for the next
two weeks. First appointments, follow-up meetings,
presentations, internal meetings etc… In addition to actual
meetings, you need to schedule in time for:
- meeting preparation
- travel time to and from meetings
- administrative and paperwork
Schedule these things into your calendar so you know exactly when
you are going to do them!
Next, schedule in time – make a firm appointment with yourself –
for prospecting activities. When will you make calls? I can
guarantee that if you don’t make a firm appointment with
yourself, those calls won’t happen.
Taking this weekly view is vital to effective time planning; many
things that we do can’t get done in one day, but if know what we
want and need to accomplish in the broader space of a week, we’re
more likely to be productive with our time.
Plan Daily: Look ahead to the next day. What urgent things will
you need to attend to? When will you do them? What things did
you not get done today that you need to do tomorrow? Do this
each day at the end of the day so you can start your next day
fresh with the knowledge of exactly what you’re setting out to
do.
TIP: Don’t overpack your time too much. You do need to allow
for the unexpected. You also need to constantly reevaluate your
time in the face of changing priorities. Give yourself the
cushion for this.
Analyze Regularly: Keep track of how you spend your time, and
analyze its level of productivity; look at whether each activity
is moving you closer to your goals or is not. Try doing this for
a period of two weeks; you’ll be amazed to realize how much time
we spend on non-productive things. Just the sheer act of
tracking this will make you more productive, guaranteed.
Apply “Zero-Based Thinking”: Author and speaker Brian Tracy, in
his book “Focal Point” talks about applying “Zero-Based Thinking”
as a way to form your goals and mission. It applies at this
level as well. As you get a sense of where you’re time is
currently spent, ask yourself these questions:
- What things do I need to start doing?
- What am I currently doing that I need to do more of?
- What am I currently doing that I need to stop doing?
What things can you delegate? What things could you stop doing
that aren’t really necessary? (Think hard on this one; there are
certainly things we all do that don’t really need to be done at
all.)
Take time for reflection and planning: “But wait”, you say! “I
don’t have time to do stuff now, how can I take all this time for
planning. Sounds nice in an ideal world, but I have to live in
reality!” Taking the time for planning and thinking will
actually make you more productive. You will be in more control
of your time, and you will be focused on the activities that will
yield you the best results. 15 minutes a day is all you’ll
really need. And those 15 minute could well be the most
important time you spend!
To help you, here some great tools you can download:
Daily Time Tracking Worksheet
http://www.lexien.com/secondary/documents/Timetrackingsheet.xls
Weekly Planning Worksheet
http://www.lexien.com/secondary/documents/WeeklyPlanningReport.xls
Mark Dembo and Thomas J. Baskind are Managing Partners in
DEI/Lexien of Greater New York, a sales performance improvement
and management consulting company. They invite you to visit
their website, http://www.lexien.com/,
and welcome your
comments and inquiries.
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