Effective Time Management for Salespeople

Written by Drew Cameron    Comment & Respond    Print Article

In the world of professional sales you are the Master of Your Own Domain or Creator of Your Own Demise…YOU DECIDE!"

To this end, time and time management are critical to your success.

Thus, the office should schedule ALL initial customer appointments for salespeople so that the customer gets an appointment when they call in and does not have top wait a return call. Additionally, all customer data is logged in the computer for purposes of lead and marketing performance tracking.

Lead slips can be printed or appointments transmitted electronically to salespeople.

All salespeople should carry a personal day planner that allows them to keep track of appointments, contacts, and tasks. Better yet, an electronic PDA device such as a Palm Treo, Blackberry, or similar smartphone device which would allow them to receive appointments and communications wirelessly as well as email.

With a planner, smartphone or PDA, salespeople can log their initial appointments with customers as provided by the office and also schedule with a mutual commitment from a customer their follow-up visits of phone calls as appointments instead of leaving them open-ended. In fact, ALL sales activity should be scheduled with a definitive date and time including time to do load calculations, bid processing, sales/job file paperwork, sales report processing, follow-up phone call activity, etc.

All of this scheduled activity is not only in the salesperson’s planner, smartphone or PDA, but also logged with the main office computer so that the office does overbook a salesperson and reduce their effectiveness. When a salesperson runs to many leads and cannot stay on top of their workload, closing ratios and average sales decline.

From this main computer system, the master schedule is maintained so that the company can maximize its sales personnel resources for optimal customer service. Daily activity reports may be printed to keep salespeople on task to focus only on those customers with whom they have made and received commitments to advance the sales call process.

An effective salesperson runs 2-3 new leads per day, has 1-2 follow-up presentations, and 6-8 follow-up phone calls to account for each day’s activity on the report and update the computer status of lead in the pipeline. Any further follow-up activity is scheduled likewise.

Additionally, paperwork, load calculations, etc. are worked into the daily schedule around the scheduled activity in open blocks of time. A salesperson that is maximizes their effective and efficient use of time does not have a moment of their time showing as free on their daily calendar as all time between 7:00 am and 9:00 pm (what I call pay time) is scheduled and accounted for, including time to eat, exercise, and take some breaks.

By the way, the masterpiece to all of this is avoiding the temptation to constantly check voice mail and email, as these two items can divert your attention from the daily plan and result in you fighting fires and feeling like your day is spinning out of control.

My best kept time management secret is now out of the bag – Schedule everything and nothing will slip through the cracks. When you set your schedule you rule your day instead of the day ruling you.

Published: April 3, 2007 9:00 AM by Drew Cameron