Sales Training and Consulting - Time Management

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Mon, 11/15/2010

Client meetings, proposals to write, reports to submit, cold calls to make, research to do, follow up contacts, networking events, and on and on and on. It never stops, and really shouldn’t. Are you in control of your actions, or do these responsibilities have control of you?

Every top salesperson in their respective field will tell you that one of the biggest keys to their continued success is continuing to manage their time wisely. The moment you get off balance in managing your time, performance falls. If you continue to be off balance for any significant period of time, you are likely to fall into a black hole with the danger of not having the possibility of getting out.

Many salespeople take on more than they can chew. It is vitally important to know your bandwidth for projects and/or tasks. Learn to say no so you can complete your current tasks accurately and on time. If you’ve been assigned a new task, determine how it will fit into your regular schedule and consistently monitor the progress you make toward completion.

One thing that I learned many years ago, was when you are beginning to tackle a project, determine if there are parts of the project that can be delegated to others. If so, get the others working on their parts first, and then start doing your part. Periodically check with those whom you delegated work to make sure they are moving at the same pace you are, and are completing the task the way you believe would be in line with the overall project goals. Once you are done with your part, collect the parts which were delegated in order to assemble and finish the project.

For some people charts to keep track of their calendar of activity helps keep them on course. These can be developed either on your computer and/or in a journal. For others it’s having an assistant remind you of tasks needed for that day, week or month.

I can’t tell you how many people start things and never finish. This is not a position you would want to relish. A Franklin planner, Day Runner, Day Timer, Outlook, your company proprietary time management system are all good methods to keep you on track. Just be sure to use something. Procrastination and ultimately dropping projects are not traits you want to be known for in your work or your life. Ironically it takes time to be a good manager of time.

Please make some comments back to me. I’d like to hear your opinion and learn about your methods for good time management.

Until next time…