Time management

If you want to be a top sales person you must be very good at time management. In sales you may never know when that next sale is coming from but with good time management you can learn to predict it. Time management is about accomplishing more in a shorter period of time. In sales creating time for every aspect of what you need to get done needs to be prioritized.

If you follow these steps you will enhance your time management skills:

1. Create a to do list – every morning create a to do list it saves time when you know exactly what you want to accomplish for the day. It will help keep you organized.

2. Delegate your time – set aside time for certain things such as email, service issues, prospecting and appointments

3. Streamline – reduce outside distractions this will help keep you Focused – when you are working stay focused on work when you are playing stay focused on playing

4. Be efficient and prioritize – have a plan know what you want to complete first this will also make you proactive as opposed to reactive.

As Brian Moran the author of “The 12 Week Year” explains in his book most sales companies do well when everyone focuses on the “year-end-push” towards annual targets. However, you should decide to have that focus in mini time periods such as per day, per week or per month. When you utilize the time management skills above you will find more success coming your way.

Empathy

When you have an appointment and you are listening to your client do you tend to be sympathetic or empathetic? Do you understand the difference? Most unsuccessful sales people are sympathetic. They tend to feel bad for the client and are unable to process the information they received and therefore can’t create a plan that benefits the customer. Empathy is simply recognizing emotions in others, and being able to "put yourself in another person's shoes" – understanding the other person's perspective and reality. To be empathic, you have to think beyond yourself and your own concerns. In sales the best sales people are empathetic and use empathy to better understand the client’s needs. When you are empathetic you understand what the client is going through and it makes it easier to create a plan beneficial to them.

When you put yourself in your prospects or client’s shoes you can relate to their needs. An example of an empathetic sales idea is the feel, felt, found technique made famous by Tom Hopkins. “I understand how you feel.” This wording lets a customer know that you heard him or her and can relate. “Initially, other people felt that way.” You are letting him or her know that this initial thought is common, meaning that the situation can change. “What they found, however, was that after doing this then that happened. How do you become empathetic? You listen better. You might have seen that on this blog (http://vincentferrara.blogspot.com/2015/09/listen.html) already. Cover your mouth, don’t speak, listen and learn. Learn everything about your client or prospect, when did they meet, when did they get married, who their children are, what do they like to do when they aren’t working, all of these little things will make you a more empathetic sales person. When you have an issue with a prospect or a client being empathetic and understanding their needs, wants and a little about them makes it is easier to resolve their issue. Your empathy can’t be fake it must be genuine. So learn how to be an empathetic sales person and watch your sales grow.

Monitor

Are you always wondering why your results aren’t where you want them to be? I mean you monitor your appointments and you just aren’t getting the results you think you should. Most people monitor their results but miss the point they should be monitoring their activity. You generally don’t get the results you expect or want unless you monitor your daily, weekly and monthly activity. In sales and business, activity is what drives sales. Yes you might get lucky occasionally with a sale or two without the activity but to be successful in the long run you must have constant activity and that activity must be monitored.

Here are some examples of activities for a successful salesperson:

• Postcards – make sure you create a list so you can follow up with phone calls

• Birthday calls or birthday cards

• Quarterly, semiannual or annual reviews

• X amount of new contacts per day through all of your activities

• Referrals from outside sources

• Texting and emails to new and old prospects

These are some good examples of the activities every successful salespeople use but the key is the successful sales person is monitoring these activities to make sure they are productive and that they are working. When you monitor these types of activities you will create more qualified appointments, more qualified appointments mean more sales and at the end of the day more sales is what we all want.