How do you prioritize anything when everything seems essential? This is an age-old question and it has been the dilemma for many sales people regardless of geography, time and product. If you are feeling this way, you’re not alone. We’re reminded of the promises we make to ourselves in January to manage priorities more effectively, only to discover later that we’ve slipped back into our old routine. Unfortunately, the New Year’s resolution statistics are not very positive. It’s time to take action.
Let’s Begin to Manage Priorities More Effectively
Set SMART goals.
They are the key to successfully managing your priorities. SMART Goals must be: Specific, Measurable, Agreed Upon, Realistic and have a Target Date.
“I’m going to make more cold calls this week” is too vague to be a SMART goal.
“Starting Monday, I am going to do five extra cold calls per week and review the results with my Sales Manager once each month” meets all the criteria for a SMART goal.
What are you doing?
Are you filing paperwork at the office when you should be in front of a client? Are you procrastinating? Talking too often and too long at the water cooler? These habits are stealing your selling time!
See your top customers.
Pareto’s Principle, which is commonly accepted in the business community, suggests that 80% of your income derives from 20% of your customers. Review your customer list; who are your 20%? How often do you see them? When?
All of us have the same amount of time – 168 hours – each week, so do you really know how many of those hours are fully productive? We can help you with that. Click on the link to receive a free Excel Time Analysis tool. This is a great way to assist you to understand where you are spending your hours.
When you complete your tracking, the spreadsheet will automatically calculate how you spend your time and provide you a visual representation of how effective you really are. The results may surprise you! The question will be: are you happy with the results, then if not, what will you do to improve?
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