How do you decide where to spend your time? You have lots of choices. Some choices will produce more sales and others just waste your time. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine how to maximize your time.
Spend your time to get results. Are you getting results?
Many people believe networking can grow their business. Meeting with decision makers in business groups or other setting could be great places to uncover prospects. Yet some sales professionals lack an effective networking strategy to sell more.
Don’t fall into the trap that one businesswoman did. She talked about her networking group. When I asked how much business she got from it she said, “None.” I replied, “So you’re doing that networking for fun?” Perhaps her definition of fun is wasting time in groups that produce no business. That’s not my definition of fun.
An effective networking strategy means that people who attend the meetings can hire you or buy your products. If not, you could ask if they have the connections to the people that can. Than ask for introductions. Yes, you can network with small businesses whose owners have connections to larger businesses, but wouldn’t it be better to start where the larger business decision makers are? Your networking strategy should include going to where the power is. The power is with decision makers who have budgets and authority to buy your products.
How much time do you allocate time to yourself?
Are you burned out? This is a simple yes/no answer. Burned out salespeople often don’t know how to say no. They say yes to every request that requires their time. They say yes because they are caught off guard. They don’t have a ready answer to decline.
Prepare for the next time someone asks for your time. Instead of being embarrassed to say no, you can have an answer ready. One response to have ready is, “I need to check my calendar and get back to you.” Another response is to gracefully decline with, “I’ve got too many commitments now so I can’t right now.”
Do you know the best time to fix problems?
William T. Peterson, Jr., the author of I’m a Manager and So Are You highlights a timesaver for managers that applies to salespeople. He discusses a manager who was having a problem with employee attendance. The manager spent months documenting the problem. Meanwhile, the problem persisted. Peterson’s comment was, “Why is this a problem now when it wasn’t when it first started?” His point was that you need to address problems immediately, not wait for them to fester.
You’ll find that when you have a big problem with a customer there were often signs of the problem when it was smaller. The time to address customer problems is when they are small. Slow paying customers comes to mind. Do not allow problems to get worse. You run the risk of your other customers noticing and the problem might spread. The beauty of selling is that salespeople have the autonomy to control their schedule. That means you can spend your time well or waste it. Ask yourself these questions to learn if you are maximizing your selling time.