SAR01
Roamer
posts: 344
(11/9/00 7:21:50 am)


Tip...Managing your time...to increase $$$$$$

ORGANIZE YOUR TIME - INCREASE YOUR PROFITS by Nido Qubein

An important step to manage your time more effectively is to get organized. You can organize many areas of your life:

(1) Organize your paperwork.

How much time do you spend searching for important materials or notes because your paperwork is not organized? Organize your desk, your car, your office, even your luggage, so you know precisely where everything is. Keep samples and catalogs neatly stored for easy access. Don't be a paper shuffler; be a paper processor. Don't let your desk become a miniature landfill. It should be a work area, not a storage area for papers you don't quite know what to do with.

(2) Organize your travel time.

Always map out your travel plans on paper -- before you leave. Look for the shortest routes. And schedule appointments close together. That way, you won't waste a lot of time crisscrossing the city or territory.

When you're on a plane, or a train or a bus, use your travel time for reading or doing paperwork. If you get tied up in traffic, don't waste your time swearing at the driver in front of you. Listen to a cassette, or critique your last presentation. Use the time to think through an idea. Or use your car phone for prospecting or setting up more appointments.

(3) Organize your presentations.

Professionals know what points they want to cover, and for maximum impact, they cover them in the least possible time.

It helps to know your customer's buying potential so you can budget more time with likely big spenders, and less time with little spenders.

If you think of your time in terms of money, it makes sense to spend more time with the people who are able to spend more money.

Make it your business to know your customer's needs before you begin your presentation. That way you can focus on the issues that interest the prospect most and not waste time on low-priority concerns.

(4) Organize your appointments in order of priority.

There are several methods of grading your prospects. A good one is to imagine yourself as the home team moving a ball across a football field. You're on your own goal line when you make a cold call. Each subsequent call should move you closer to the end zone at the other end of the field. Through presentations, meetings and conversations, you move the prospect across the 100 yards that leads to pay dirt. When you're on the prospect's goal line, the sale is imminent. If you're a good salesperson, you'll have prospects all over the field. Some may be on your own 20-yard-line. Some may be at the 50-yard line. Some may be on the prospect's 10. The closer you are to the prospect's goal line, the better the appointment is. You stand a much better chance of closing that sale.

So don't spend most of your time chasing people who are on your own 10 or 20 when you have some prospects with the ball close to their end zones. Spend the biggest chunk of your time pursuing the people who are closest to buying. Of course, some time has to be spent cultivating new business. But don't spend so much time pursuing less-certain prospects that you lose sight of those who are ready to buy.

Here are several other things you can do to boost the value of your appointments:

Set up appointments at times and places that are convenient for you, as well as for your prospects.
Be sure a decision-maker is present. Otherwise you may be wasting your time.
Avoid tying your appointment to a meal, where you don't have the option of leaving as soon as you have finished with your business. For professional salespeople, time management is a way of life. They don't let their clocks bully them. Time-wasters, on the other hand, become slaves to the clock. They rush around like crazy, trying to get everything done. They let their time manage them. If you use a little selling savvy, you'll be able to get much more done in less time. Just put yourself on a schedule and organize your work, and you will find you have all the time you need.

The key to time management is to develop a sense of urgency about everything you do. When you have a sense of urgency, every action becomes a step toward the completion of a sale. With a sense of urgency, you always operate with a consciousness of closure. A consciousness of closure is a constant drive to finish whatever you start. It's a constant search for ways to shorten the sales cycle.

For instance, we've all had prospects say, "Send me some material on this, and I'll get back to you." What they really mean is, "Don't bother me; I'm not interested enough to act on that right now."

With a sense of urgency, we're always thinking in terms of bringing everything to a concrete action. We move in quickly and find out whether the prospect who says "I'll get back to you" really needs more information to make a decision, or is simply throwing up a smoke screen. If the prospect wants more information, we need to find out specifically what information is needed and supply it right away.

But if the statement, "I'll get back to you," is just a smoke screen, we have to find out the real reason the prospect is not ready to act.

Here's another one of those typical delays: A prospect says, "Send me a contract and I'll look it over." That means absolutely nothing.

The professional salesperson will say, "If I send this to you tomorrow, are you going to be there to receive it?"

The prospect may answer, "Well, no, I won't be back in the office until Thursday."

Then the salesperson needs to say, "OK, I'll send it through overnight mail so it will arrive in your office Thursday. And will you be able to okay it Thursday, and put it in the return mail that day?" A sense of urgency pushes you to get a commitment that says, "Yes, we are going to do this at a specific time."

Almost all buying decisions are made within 24 hours of the time they are proposed. The longer you let a prospect mull over a purchase, the lower your chances are of making a sale, and the more of your time it eats up.

Professional salespeople understand the importance of looking for ways to shorten the sales cycle. They are constantly trying to tie up all the loose ends of every part of each transaction. Your time is your money. Be aware of how you use this irreplaceable inventory. The key to sales success is to invest every minute of every day of every week as wisely as possible.


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Nido R. Qubein came to the United States as a teenager with no knowledge of English, no contacts and only $50 in his pocket, yet ended up a multi-millionaire.



-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001