time management checklist

Time is money – money for you, revenue for your company.

It's a paradox for everyone – an absolute – perfectly equal for all... same days in a month, hours in a day and minutes in an hour. Yet time seems to work better for some and be more abundant for others.

Below is your time management checklist for sales leaders. It'll help you identify the important elements to consider when developing your personal time management system. Some aspects may apply to your sales environment, some may not – use what works for you and skip the rest. Moving forward, be sure to evaluate your time management practices periodically and use this checklist as your guide.

It's your sales time... do more, sell more...

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organize your time

the money hours

• organize your day around the money hours – the hours when you can and should be talking with prospects and customers
• handle non-revenue generating activities before or after the money hours

prospecting hours

• dedicate a certain percentage of money hours to prospecting
• to increase the probability of reaching prospects, vary the time of day you prospect
• schedule it, do it, love it

follow-up

• queue up and standardize your most frequently used follow-up pieces for easy production and distribution
• document follow-up immediately – don't set it aside

professional development

• schedule non-money hours for sales skill development or improving industry and/ or product knowledge

understand the value of your time...

sales days

• be aware of the sales days for each month and quarter
• know where you are in the sales timeline and plan accordingly
• download the sales days calendar

sales stats

• understand and track your sales stats so you can plan effectively
• dials to contacts
• contacts to qualified leads
• qualified leads to proposals
• proposals to contracts
• contracts to customers
• dials per hour
• follow up calls per hour
• follow up attempts before dropping
• determine the value of each sales hour given your earnings level/ target

extra time

• choose a reasonable extra amount of time to dedicate to sales each day (23 minutes each sales day adds one extra sales day each month)

productive down time

• always have something to read... always... for flight delays, waiting rooms and lines
• use drive time for sales development and phone calls (get a headset if you can)

the extra call

• one extra call a day is more than 250 extra contacts in a year

remember time management basics...

start early

• not only for the day, but also for the week, month and quarter
• start early on projects and sales appointments

plan ahead

• look ahead to sales days around holidays, end of the month and end of the quarter and plan accordingly
• be aware of the sales "timeline" for your product – where you are in the month and where you are with the prospect

respect time

• your time, your prospect's time, your customer's time
• professionals don't waste time and prospects and customers respect those who understand this... be punctual and be succinct