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Many salespeople and entrepreneurs go
into their day or their week with no concept of what they should be
doing. Naturally, there’s little likelihood they will get the most
important things done (live the nine listed above). So they fritter
away their time filling out expense reports and typing into ACT.
TM Tip #2: Schedule time for
your must-dos, treating these activities with the same respect and
urgency as client meetings.
How? Map out how long each activity
should take and allocate a time slot for each. Look at prospecting,
for example. Start with your goals and work backwards. Let’s say you
want to bring in $100,000 in new business each month and your
average deal size is $30,000. We know from our Sky’s the Limit
client surveys that you have to make about 100 new phone calls to
close one deal.
Here’s the math: You need to make 300
new business phone calls a month (3 deals x 100 dials per deal),
which translates into 15 new business calls to new contacts a day
(300 dials divided by 20 working days). Since each new phone call
takes about 4 minutes (this is an average since some will take more
and many will take less), this means you need to book 1 hour every
day in your calendar for new business development phone calls.
Make a pact with yourself that each
must-do is as sacrosanct as a client meeting. Schedule the time, and
do everything in your power to adhere to your schedule.
TM Tip #3: Break your week
into certain days for quotes, orders, follow-up calls, emails, and
other days for appointments.
If you can give your undivided attention
to the task at hand, you won’t be pulled in multiple directions and
you’ll be much more effective. We recommend that you break your week
into three types of days; 1) days where you only spend time in the
field, 2) days where you only conduct administrative work, 3) days
that you completely take off and reenergize. How do you deal with
tasks that are out of sync with your day? Delegate to an assistant
or colleague whenever possible, but be flexible at the same time.
TM Tip #4: Start your week on
Friday and feel less pressured.
Look ahead to your week, consider what
you need to accomplish, and spread it out over the week. Why? When
you have a list of 20 different things to do in a day and you don’t
get to all of them, you feel like a failure. If you spread the work
over a week, you feel less pressured.
Plus, when you do your planning on
Friday (the Friday before the coming week), the activities you
intend to accomplish sit in your subconscious and become a part of
who you are. In addition, you know exactly what you need to be
doing, and you make a commitment to yourself and focus in on
tackling those key tasks.
TM Tip #5: Convert Piles into
Files.
When you convert piles into files, you
find money that’s been lying around – leads, information to send to
customers, and other opportunities. The majority of salespeople
(60%) have over 1000 emails in their inbox, many unopened. Clutter
can distract you from your must-dos and throw you off course, so get
rid of clutter in your inbox…your office…your car.
TM Tip #6: Handle Things
Once.
Follow the TRAF rule. t="toss" or
delete. r="refer" or delegate (to customer service, your boss, a
vendor, a spouse). If someone can do the job 75% as well as you,
refer it. a="Action." This can be saying No! f="File." 80% of what’s
filed is never used, so toss it whenever possible.
TM Tip #7: Watch your
“miles.”
Consolidate tasks such as faxing and
copying so you’re not chopping up your day. Even the illustrious
Coach Nick reports he previously went downstairs to the Business
Center every time he needed to print, which turned into a major time
waster. Instead, buy a printer to minimize the time you leave your
desk. And schedule appointments together that are in close
proximity.
TM Tip #8: Keep score.
To keep winning and take your time
management efforts to the next level, call Coach Nick at 877-
52-COACH and get your TM scorecard. |
