Did you know that on average, only 10% of a salesperson’s time is spent selling? How can you expect profits to increase when such a small percent of time involves true selling? Salespeople spend the rest of their time prospecting leads, problem solving, responding to personal phone calls and e-mails, traveling, and administration. While all of these tasks might be important for your business, not all of them are such high priority that they should be a focus.
What are the best practices in order to be the most productive?
Daily:
- 3 hours in front of a customer
- 4-8 outbound calls for lead prospecting
- 10, 2, and 4: The times of day to check email and voicemail
- No longer than 4 hours between receiving and returning a customer’s call
Weekly:
- 4-6 face to face sales calls
- An average of 5 new accounts in some stage of development
- 2 hours spent in creative thinking
Goals and Next Steps:
Spend less time on administrative functions (which on average consume 30% of a salesperson’s time). These can be delegated to a trusted assistant, freeing up more of your time for lead prospecting and face to face meetings. If a task doesn’t directly relate to revenue-producing, find a way to take it out of your hands.
Start each B2B Sales day and week by listing out priorities. Your highest priority is any task that has severe consequences if not completed. Next, consider the difference between activities you can probably complete but that have mild consequences and those things that you can either delegate or eliminate.
Determine the top three goals for the remainder of the year and then set out tasks that build up to those goals. Focus primarily on the tasks that will help complete those three goals. Post them visually as a constant reminder of where you’re going and how you plan to get there. Next, identify the time of day you are most productive and use that time to work on tasks related to your big goals.
Finally, utilize technology as a tool and not as a distraction, but make sure you set aside time to detach from both. You may be surprised at how much more productive you find yourself between the times you are checking emails and voicemails.
