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Increase Your Selling Time

by Tim Connor    

Before you can improve your use of time to sell, you need to get a handle on where you are spending your time and how you are abusing it. Most of us tend to waste the time we do in the same old ways, day after day, year after year. A good friend of mine and fellow speaker, shared what I believe is an excellent way to get a handle on both of these questions. For one week, carry a stop watch and start it when in the presence of a prospect or customer TO SELL, and stop it when you leave. After the sales visit, don't reset the clock, but keep a running accumulative total of time spent selling in one week.

I will bet, that if you will do this faithfully for just 5 days, you will discover you are spending less time selling than you think. Next, keep a running log for 5 days in 15 minute blocks of how non-sales time was spent. At the end of the day, total your time in the following categories:

Paperwork.

After sales service.

Other administrative duties.

Market or client research.

Prospecting for new business.

Meals alone or with clients.

Travel time.

Time with co-workers.

Time spent in meetings – formal or informal spur-of-the-moment.

Planning.

Thinking.

Other.

Between these two exercises, you will get a fairly accurate picture of where you need time management and/or territory improvement. Yon can't change or fix what you don't know is wrong. So, before you launch into some sophisticated time management program, remember – you cannot manage time. It passes with or without you. What you do manage are: activities, decisions, people, resources, success, problems, failure, materials, and actions. What these two exercises are designed to do is help you determine where you are out of balance or focus.


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Tim Connor, CSP, is a professional speaker and expert in the fields of management, sales, team building, and customer service. He's the author of 19 books and can be reached at 704-895-1230, speaker@bellsouth.net or www.timconnor.com.