A Simple Tool to Improve Sales Prospecting and Time Management

The past few weeks I’ve met up with or had lunch with a social media coach, a sales vice president for an employee benefits company, a financial adviser, and a sales representative for a data and storage solutions company.

Guess what challenges they all have in common?

1. How do I minimize noise and distractions from my peers, bosses, and life itself and stay focused and disciplined?

2. How can I consistently carve out time each day to prospect for new business to keep my sales pipeline full to reach my income goals?

3. How do I differentiate myself in a crowded market when the executives I call get bombarded with calls from my competitors all day long?

I don’t have the perfect answer but I do feel that sales success is a combination of 3 things:

Skill, Luck and Timing

Here’s a potential tool that will help improve areas 1 and 2.

I read last year Darren Hardy’s book “The Compound Effect”. You’ve heard the old saying “You can’t measure what you don’t track.”

In Hardy’s book, he has a simple tool which I personally use consistently.

Here’s the link: http://www.thecompoundeffect.com/downloads/Weekly%20Rhythm%20Register.pdf

Every Sunday night, I would encourage you to write down your specific goals, professional or personal, that you want to accomplish for the week. Be specific and be realistic.

For example, if you want to make 20 sales call a day at least 5 times a week, you write “20 sales calls” under “Behavior / Action” column and put the number “5” under “Goal” column.

At the end of the week if you only accomplished it 3 times, you would write 3 under “Achieved” with a “Net” of “2”.

Your goals should be either you did it or not. Pretty short and simple and not too complicated.

Other goals might be:

Read at least 15 minutes each day of a business book.

Exercise 30 minutes for 4 days.

Have date night with my spouse or significant other 1 time this week

Get up every morning by 6:00 am

Have about 5 to 10 things you’d like to accomplish and don’t overdo it.

Tally the number of times on the goal sheet and write in the number.

At the end of the day, check the box if you did the task or not. It should take about 20 seconds.

At the end of the week, add up how many times you hit your goals. Then divide it by the number goal.

Last year, I hit 89% of my goals. Not bad, could be better. If you need help, contact me and I’ll walk you through this exercise.

When I asked my 4 contacts if they tracked the number of calls they made daily, all of them said no. Not surprised.

I guarantee you if you use this consistently to track your sales calls and numbers, your performance will go up. Maybe not the first week or two, but it will over the long haul. Why? You now have daily and weekly awareness.

It’s no different if you asked me to help you lose 20 pounds.  Yes, I’d tell you to exercise more and eat less. I’d also tell you to write down every beverage and food you put in your mouth. When we have to write it down, we are aware of the goal we set before us. It’s too easy to lose sight of our goals throughout the drudgery and mundane of the week.

I’m Ray Ruecker and I wish you a Happy Memorial Weekend on behalf of Connect 5000!