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Organization
-by Jerry T. Hancock _______________________________________________________________________
The sales business is a demanding business. It requires that you be on top of a lot of details constantly. In order to do this, organization skills must be superb. Here are some general thoughts about how to keep yourself organized and how to demonstrate that to the prospect or customer. Use Your Computer Wisely Paper files are very difficult to keep up with. Electronic files are much more readily available. Wherever possible have electronic files easily accessible on your computer so that you can bring up information as needed to talk to the prospect or customer. Most contact management software programs allow you to attach a file to a contact name so that you can bring up information custom to that contact when you need it. There are numerous other tricks to making the computer work for you as an organization tool. Learn the software capabilities and use them.
Keep Your Sales Information Organized If you don't have it already, buy a small sorter to keep close by your desk. Keep standard literature organized and ready to send as needed.
Organize Your Presentation This applies not just to the literature you show, but to the structure of your presentation as well. You should start with a strong opening and end with a strong closing and have some irrefutable data in between. This will make your case much stronger.
Time Management See the section elsewhere on this website about Time Management for details.
Keep Phone Numbers Handy Are you using a PDA to store prospect and customer phone numbers? Can you download them from your computer? Are you still working from a paper system? You absolutely must have basic information about prospects and customers at your fingertips wherever you happen to be. If you're still using a paper system, when you make your list of prospects to call, be sure to put the phone number by their name. That way, you will always have the information you need to get in touch with them and you can use spare moments waiting in a lobby to return calls. If you're using a PDA of some sort, be sure that the fields that you download to the PDA are the most relevant ones for prospecting. Learn the software that controls this feature.
Schedule Your Day It is frustrating to get a call back from your most important prospect while you are on the phone with a cold call which is not likely to produce. When you leave callback messages, suggest a time for the caller to return the call and use that hour for paperwork instead of placing calls.
Leave Detailed Messages In dealing with customers, leave detailed messages about what you need from them as the job progresses. A message that just says it "Call me back" is not very helpful in getting things done. It will usually require one or more additional calls to resolve an issue. Why not leave a detailed message as to what is needed; if it is not understood, the prospect can call you back but usually it frees up time and gets things moving. Almost every successful sales manager will tell you that organization and time management have a great deal to do with their success. It is important that you learn these skills and if you're a Sales Manager, teach them to your direct reports. Learning good presentation skills and organizing your work can have a huge impact on your effectiveness. What organization ideas to you have? Share them on our forum page. (You may reprint this article or distribute it at will as long as it includes the following Copyright notice.) Copyright 2005 Jerry T. Hancock and sellingcoach.netTM
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