Time Management Part 3 With Your Trainer Joe Ellers Beware the sales pitfalls • I can’t make sales calls because… • My customers don’t make appointments on Monday morning/Friday afternoon/too close to holidays • Of paperwork • I have to go to the office first/last thing everyday • I need to respond to e-mail To Do • During the course of every week, you should probably be doing some of the following: • • • • • • Prospecting calls for new customers Prospecting calls for new contacts Calls to find new opportunities Calls to present qualification information Calls to present quotes/proposals Closing calls • Are you? Take a minute to look at the big picture • • • • • • For the week ahead… New customer calls? New/focus product presentations? Personal goals? Family goals? Do you have scheduled activities that accomplish any of the things that are important? • How much unscheduled time is there? Now look at tomorrow • • • • • New customer calls? New/focus product presentations? Personal goals? Family goals? Do you have scheduled activities that accomplish any of the things that are important? • How much unscheduled time is there? Golden Rules • • • • • • Don’t ask them to call you back Do your prep before/after prime sales hours Do your travel before/after prime sales hours Use your cell phone Build a bridge Manage your opportunities • Do it now! Don’t ask them to call you back… • If you ask/tell them when you will call back, you remain in charge • If you ask for a callback, they control the timing Do your prep before/after prime sales hours • Can you do your reports early in the morning? A few minutes after work? Isn’t it really quicker then? • Learn to make e-mail work for you • Can you really afford to spend that time on non-sales activities? Do your travel before/after prime sales hours • When do you make your first and last call everyday? • Is the time you are giving up really “quality” time? Use your cell phone • Have scheduled phone appointments when you have at least an hour of time • Do some service on the phone • Talk to your office Build a bridge • The most effective use of time in sales comes from building a bridge from contact to contact. You spend less time trying to find people and you have better visibility of your schedule. • How many times do you leave open loops? Manage your opportunities • Document Your Opportunities • Construct an Opportunity Spreadsheet • Tie “Build a bridge” into Managed Opportunities A sales call template • The sales call is the building block • Before every call… Send a confirming e-mail, fax or voicemail Remember to remind the customer of the value of the call Call Template, continued • During the call Identify action items Close the call with a restatement of the action items and a confirmation of the next communication—stay in charge of the call Call Template, continued even more • After the call Write your call report Write up action items/dates and send to the customer Update your calendar Action Items • Reduce the amount of unscheduled sales time • Increase your average number of sales calls • Use the sales call template to “build a bridge” • Manage your opportunities Final Thoughts: We’ve covered leveraging your time. The next step for you is to begin improving and streamlining your sales process and utilizing more effective sales tools. To Begin this process I encourage you to begin looking at ways to improve your knowledge and skills by applying the information covered in this section. Best of Luck! Joe Ellers Congratulations… I want to congratulate you on your completion of this program. Now it’s up to you to implement, and continue to plan and reach for your goals and objectives. Best of Luck…Joe Ellers See Additional Resource Tools