Time Wasters for Sales Reps

Time Wasters for Sales Reps

This topic is very appropriate for me this week because of several obstacles that fell my way last week preventing me from making the maximum utilization of time to reach my personal sales goals. My sales week experience went something like this:

An unexpected summer cold set in causing me not to feel good and challenging me to work extra hard to project a positive attitude. My telecommunication sources fell short of their expectations and shortened my hourly week preventing me from reaching all of the business contacts I needed to reach to meet my personal sales goals. I also discovered I could have taken advantage of short cuts in my documentation systems I am using to track my business leads.

So here is the possible solution: I don’t think I could have prevented my summer cold; at least, I don’t know how I could have prevented my summer cold. I may not always have perfect telecommunication service. The good news is I can improve how I use my time to reach my goals.

As a successful sales rep, you probably already know the key skills needed to develop and maintain business leads and to keep your customers happy. It is real simple. We need to find qualified prospects, determine their potential needs, close the sale, provide excellent customer service and maintain an efficient tracking system.

We should also know what other successful sales reps are doing to properly measure our own successes. Importantly, we need to accomplish all of this in a timely manner. While technology can eliminate much inefficiency we all know technology can occasionally present us with down time. Technology is important because through technology we are able to quickly contact our prospects, maintain records of our prospective leads, close sales and service our customers.

We must make sure the technologies we choose to run our business are working efficiently. So what key priorities should we be focusing on? How do we spend our time? Are we maximizing productivity and minimizing time wasters?

It is important to make sure we have selected the most reliable technology sources we can, and that all systems are working properly. Invest time in the process and money in the systems to leverage the ability to quickly and effectively qualify and sort leads and you will find hidden increases in productivity.

We need to make sure we are up-to-date and knowledgeable about all computer programs being utilized. It is so important to manage our time and utilize proper lead management.

Effective lead management includes:

Lead Qualification Skills
Lead Reporting
Lead Tracking
Lead Routing

Below are examples of poor lead management that can turn into time wasters:

LEAD QUALIFICATION: If a lead is not qualified, time can be wasted pursuing a business which does not meet basic criteria for needing the product or service we are selling.

LEAD REPORTING: Once we identify a lead, if it is not reported in a timely manner the sales opportunity can be lost.

LEAD TRACKING: We can lose the sales opportunity if we fail to follow up on a lead we have spent time cultivating interest. If we fail to follow up on hot leads, they can turn cold. If we give up too quickly, we can lose the sale to our competitors.

LEAD ROUTING: If leads are not routed to the proper person and if mistakes are made in system documentation, these two things cause us to lose sales opportunities.

The two most important questions we can ask ourselves each day before beginning our pursuit of sales are how can I best utilize my time today and is every thing in place that I will need to perform in a timely optimum level to reach my goals.

Time wasted is sales opportunity wasted.

We can all increase our sales opportunities through improving the ways we use our time.