Successful Time Management For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 20

Time Management for Salespeople

In This Chapter

• Diversifying your time investment effectively
• Concentrating on direct income-producing activities
• Balancing out with indirect income-producing activities
• Keeping production-supporting activities to a minimum

A salesperson does so much more than simply sell. A salesperson prospects, qualifies, cold calls, warm calls, networks, follows up, generates leads, serves customers, asks for referrals, develops marketing plans, prepares proposals, handles objections, role-plays and rehearses, researches, troubleshoots, files, mails, and asks for the close.

Yet all this boils down to that most fundamental function: making the sale. Boosting the bottom line. Generating revenue. Producing income. The efforts and energies of the salesperson all have to flow in the direction of selling. And the more time the salesperson can devote to making the sale, the more successful the salesperson becomes.

Top performers use their time more effectively to create and convert leads at a higher rate per hour and invest less time convincing people to buy, to buy through them, and to take action now. In the world of sales, time management is a critical skill.

Through decades of experience as a sales leader, sales coach, motivational speaker, and consultant, I discovered that few sales professionals understand exactly how to effectively invest their time when faced with the many tasks required of the job. Early in my career, I developed a system for time ...