Oddly enough, time management is not often talked about as a sales skill and yet almost every successful producer has mastered good time management. Even many sales managers fail to focus on the importance of time management  when coaching their salespeople.

The concepts which apply to time management in business productivity apply even more so in sales. Here are some basic pointers, and you can add your own on the forum web page.

If you don't have clear goals you will not know how to allocate your time. Once you have set goals, you can filter everything you do to determine whether it is taking you closer to your goal. If you only do those things which take you closer to your goal, you are working on the right priorities.

The priorities which you choose on a day-to-day basis are determined by your goals. For example, if your goal is to sell $1 million worth of product this year, then your priorities have to reflect that. How you spend your time, and the interim steps to the goal, obtaining the proper tools to do the job--all of these become high priorities in helping you reach your goal.

Only after you have established goals and priorities can you think about what should be on your To Do list. Most of us work backwards from this. We create a To Do list that is disconnected from our goals and priorities. This results in busywork but not much productivity. Far better to check each item on your To Do list to see how it fits into your larger goals and priorities. If it doesn't fit, get rid of it.

Assuming you have done the items before above, here are some other general pointers:

1. Analyze your work area and make it more productive. Get rid of  anything which is not contributing to your sales effort. Get all of your tools, resources, and files within easy reach so that you can access them as you talk to prospects. Better still, put as much as you can into electronic files on the computer so you have no paper shuffling to deal with.

2. Organize your prospect database immediately. If you're not already using contact management software, begin doing so immediately. Act! or Outlook or other similar programs can work wonders in providing the data you need to prospect effectively. (There is a job aid for using Act on this website. ) Automating much of the detail of prospecting will free up lots of time for other needs.

3. Once you have made an appointment, check your database for other prospects in the same area or en route to minimize travel time.

4. Break bad habits such as hanging around the break room, visiting other colleagues, reading magazines and the like. These are not likely to contribute to your sales effort and they will greatly distract you.

5. Set a goal for daily sales calls or visits and do not allow excuses for not making them.

6. Keep some small tasks handy (such as expense reports, light reading) which you can do while you're on hold or waiting to see a prospect.

7. Create a list of the items you need to talk to prospects about when concluding a sale or moving to the next stage. This will avoid callbacks and wasted motion. (Even better, put it in writing so you can email it to the prospect.)

8. Purge your filing system and get rid of excess paper.

What ideas do you have on this subject? Add them to our forum page.

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Last modified: Saturday October 22, 2005.