What value do other people put on your time?
What is the true value of you time?
Have you ever had what I call "A 100% Day" where you're totally on fire? You just can't do anything wrong. You can wait to get to the next appointment and make another sale and it's inconvenient when the working day come to an end because you want more of it! More time. Of course you have, but likely you will have had some 10% days too.
Selling and being successful in sales is all about consistency - as is many things in life. It's about doing things consistently well. Sure its great when you have a "100% Day" but is it realistic to expect this every day? No, you'll burn out - it's not sustainable or realistic. What if your 100% day is followed by four 25% days - you will have had a 200% week, which is fine. BUT, what if you had five 50% days? More controlled, fewer peaks and troughs, better managed, less exhausting then you will have achieved a 250% week. Consistency.
Consistently doing the right things day in day out, week in week out will ultimately achieve you more, increase your sales and get you to where you want to be, quicker. But to achieve this, you need to be in control of your time. Actually, you have to become The Master of your time.
Here's what Jack Canfield author of "The Success Principles" has to say about planning your day. After we look at time management a little more closely, I'll come back to some on the thoughts he puts forward.
I don't know where the days are going!
Well we've all said that but wouldn't be a good idea to find out? Here's how.
How To Sell Coach Time Management Stage 1
Measure Your Day
Have you heard the maxim "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it?" Well this is true of time is it is with any sales activity. Once a month, more if you feel it to be necessary (but don't go over-board), make a short note of how you spend your day.
Get a pad and a pen and split your day into half hour intervals starting at the time you get up.
Throughout the day, make a short, one-line note of what the activity was. So it may be:
- Driving to your first appointment
- Preparing your sales presenter
- In face to face call with client
- Follow-up call administration
- In meeting with sales manager
- Answered telephone call from client
- Made call to friend for weekend arrangement
And so on. Two things to remember when your doing this exercise:
- As best you can, fill out the form as it happens. Now clearly if your with a customer you can't stop half way through to put a note in your half hour slot. But as soon as your finished, make sure your doing it.
- Be as honest as you can. Don't try to change your day to make it look better. That will serve no purpose. What you want to happen here is for areas that can be improved so you can make better use of your time but also what or who is wasting your time.
From the time log in stage one, you now want to transfer this information to a summary sheet to establish what percentage of your day is spent on what kind of activities. Clearly you will choose the headings that best suit you but one I have used in the past include:
- Time in a sales call
- Sales administration
- Other administration
- Work interruptions
- Non-work interruptions
- Internal meeting
- Travelling
Now what does this tell you about how you can increase your actual time selling and therefore making money? Well lets have a look because the next part is setting goals to improve your performance.
Stage 3 - Setting Goals From Your Findings
Well to start with, if you are employed as a sales person or are in a start-up business and you time spend actually selling is less than 50%, I can tell you now, there is a problem.
Are you spending too much time administering the business? Therefore is there a training need there for you or can the systems and processed be improved. If you report to a sales manager, they will always be open to suggestion that will allow you more time to make more sales.
Are you spending too much time travelling? Therefore can you plan your calls better across the week to cut this down. Are you being reactive instead of proactive. Are you allowing yourself to be pulled around.
Are you taking too many personal calls? If so do your friends and family need a gentle reminder that evening would be better for phone calls unless it is an emergency.
Are you being called into too many meetings? Are you calling too many meetings?
Here's my promise - if you do this exercise, even just once, I promise you will find something you can improve. I find it is important to do this regularly and on different days. It's a good way of keeping a check on yourself but also on those around you who can eat your time without knowing the effect it is having on you.
