10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople: Gain the Competitive Edge and Make Every Second Count

by Dave Kahle

Overview

A practical guide to help salespeople work smarter and harder, and ultimately use their time more effectively.

The typical salesperson today is overwhelmed, trapped in a chaotic, pressure-filled environment with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Salespeople need help! This book provides it.

Dave Kahle contends that smart time management is not about cramming more activity into each hour; but about achieving greater results in that hour. The content has been honed in hundreds of seminars and refined by the perceptions and experiences of thousands of salespeople. 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople provides powerful, practical insights and ideas that really work, including hundreds of specific, practical, effective time management tips from dozens of salespeople who are on the “front lines” every day.

The author, Dave Kahle, has been the number-one salesperson in the country for two different companies in two distinct industries. He’s presented seminars throughout the world, published more than four hundred articles, and authored three books and thirty-two multimedia training programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781601639042
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	06/23/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	225
File size:	904 KB

About the Author

Dave Kahle has been the top salesperson in the nation for two companies in two distinct industries. He has authored nine books, presented in 47 states and nine countries, and has personally and contractually worked with more than 300 companies to help them increase their sales. Specializing in the B2B environment, Dave creates customized training programs, speaks at national conventions, and consults in areas of sales system design and sales force compensation. He splits his time between Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Sarasota, Florida. You can connect with him at www.davekahle.com.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The First Time Management Secret:

Get Grounded!

I've seen literally dozens of salespeople become superstars — record-setting prize winners who win the trips, earn the big commissions, and glow in the praises of the boss at annual sales meetings. And I've watched a considerable number of them crash and burn shortly thereafter.

Those who go down in flames follow some common patterns. Some compromise their integrity for the sake of the next big deal, and then pay the price of not being trusted by either their companies or their customers. Some abuse substances as they ride in the fast lane. Others become infatuated with their own success and squander their potential by chasing after some big deal that never closes. Most become immersed in the heady exhilaration of one deal after the other, work 12- to 14-hour days, and lose their families in the process.

Then there are those who excel and lead the pack year after year, who enjoy a full personal life, and view their success through a balanced perspective. The difference is that one group is grounded, and the other not.

What does it mean to be grounded? Being grounded means that you are securely fastened to some deeply held, basic commitments that give shape and focus to all that you do as a salesperson. Being grounded means that there is something that keeps you in check, that gives direction and purpose to your job-related efforts.

Imagine a kite flying in a brisk and variable wind. The kite twists and turns and darts up and down in response to the tricky winds. But it's always held in place by that string in the hands of its flyer, whose feet are firmly on the ground.

Cut that string, and the kite wiggles erratically and crashes to the ground. In a paradox, it's the string to the ground, that force that the kite constantly struggles against, that gives it the ability to fly. Cut the string, and the suddenly free kite instantly darts out of control and crashes to the ground.

So it is with grounded salespeople. Before you can concentrate on twisting and turning in response to the constantly changing winds of your job, you need to know that the string is firmly attached to the ground. Without it, you'll likely find yourself going off on tangents, becoming excessively reactive, and wasting hours every month in nonproductive, low-priority efforts. That firm attachment is a strong commitment to something that is larger and longer-lasting than any individual part of your job. It's a paradox. In order to become more effective in your job, you must first focus on things that are outside of it.

Tips from the troops ...

* * *

Make a duplicate set of essential items such as keys, your list of your credit card numbers, and a photocopy of your personal directory. That way, if any of this is lost or stolen, you won't waste time trying to recreate it.

When you get grounded you put that kite string in place, allowing you to focus on becoming effective in your job. Without being grounded, much of your effort to become more effective is scattered and unfocused.

There are three strands to this kite string, three elements to being grounded:

1. A mindset that provides energy for your efforts.

2. A basic strategy that gives direction to your efforts.

3. A set of important values that brings purpose to your efforts.

A mindset that provides energy for your efforts

Smart time management does not begin with the tools and tactics of your job. You don't start with a new PDA, laptop, or cell phone. Rather, you start inside yourself, by accentuating a mindset. A mindset is a group of beliefs that are so deep and firmly held that they are the source of many of your thoughts. Those thoughts kindle your behavior, influencing almost everything that you do. Your mindset shapes the way you see the world, and therefore, the way you do your job.

All the great time managers I have known have one thing in common. They have all shared the mindset that I call More. They believe that there is more to life than just this. There is more that you can do, more that you can become. There is more to your job than where you are at today. There is more challenge, more to achieve. There are more customers, more sales, more of everything.

They strive to do more, be more and have more because they believe that they can and they should. This fundamental mindset is a characteristic of every great achiever, whether they be a salesperson or a social worker, a politician or a preacher, a mother or a martyr.

Don't get this mindset mixed up with greed, which focuses on the accumulation of more and more money. The More mindset is not so trivial. It is focused on attaining a greater degree of human potential. Because of the salesperson's job, one portion of that human potential is measured by money. But that money is incidental to the drive for more. Some high achieving salespeople are salaried, compensated in such a way that their sales achievements do not directly impact their income. Some are still high achieving, more motivated people.

The More mindset concerns itself with not only doing more and having more, but also in becoming more than you are now. When you are imbued with the More mindset, you never settle with the status quo. You know you can be better than you are, and you can achieve more than you do.

While we are considering more in relation to our jobs as salespeople, it has application to every part of our life. It's an approach to life.

More provides the energy that drives the changes you will need to make if you want to become an excellent time manager, because the More mindset creates discontent, and discontent is the mother of change.

Let's think about this together. If you are going to become a smart time manager, you are going to need to change some things that you do. Change is hard. None of us really likes to change. We'd much rather stay in our comfortable routines. We've spent years developing them, either consciously or subconsciously. If everything else were equal, we wouldn't change.

This is particularly true if we are solidly content with our situation and with ourselves. Show me salespeople who are perfectly content with who they are and what they are accomplishing, and I'll show you salespoeple who won't grow or improve.

Contentment, then, supports the status quo. Discontent is necessary to energize change. Take that same salesperson who is making a comfortable living and cause some change in those circumstances — cut the territory in half, or change the compensation plan. Or witness a personal change in circumstances — another child on the way, or the purchase of an expensive new home. Suddenly, there is discontent. That discontent causes energy, and energy, focused and directed in the right ways, causes positive change.

I'm not advocating that you go to your manager and ask for a cut in sales territory. But I am advocating that you understand the role of discontent in your job and the necessity to create discontent within yourself in order to energize the changes you'll need to make. I am advocating that you accept responsibility for developing your own discontent. And the way to create discontent in you is to latch on to the mindset of More.

If you truly believe that you can become better, do more and have more, then you are never content with the status quo. The More mindset becomes the seed that grows into constant discontent. The fruit of that tree is positive change.

Once you gain this More mindset, you find yourself engaging in certain kinds of behavior and developing certain habits. For example, because you believe that you can accomplish more, you look for opportunities to do so. You are more sensitive to opportunities for your products and services with your customers. The salesperson energized by the More mindset will find opportunities for products that the content salesperson will walk right by.

It works like this: The More mindset creates an expectation that there are more opportunities. Because you believe there are more opportunities, you look for them. Because you look for them, you find them. After a while, you begin to crystallize the processes and techniques you used to find those opportunities. You may create certain disciplines for yourself, like always asking an extra question or two. You may create tools, like an account profile form to capture customer opportunities. As a result, you become far more effective.

The starting point was the mindset. The mindset led to behavior. The behavior led to processes and habits. Those processes and habits led to better results.

Want to become a more effective time manager? Want to improve your sales results? Start with the first strand of the kite string — the More mindset.

How do you get the More mindset?

Many professional salespeople don't need to develop the More mindset. They already have it. It was instilled in them by their families as they were growing up. Part of their motivation to take a job in field sales in the first place may have come from that more mindset. There is, after all, more opportunity to do more, achieve more, become more, and have more in field sales then there is in most other jobs. The freedom of an outside salesperson leads to great opportunities for personal growth and financial achievement.

Looking back, I'd have to conclude that more was deeply instilled in me as I was growing up. My father was a salesperson who became a branch manager before he passed away. My mother, in her late 60s, became active in politics and was elected to three terms as city councilwoman in Toledo, Ohio. In her 70s, she was elected Vice Mayor of the city. Every one of my five brothers is self-employed. Clearly, some values were instilled in my family during my formative years.

If you have the More mindset as a result of your upbringing, be thankful. It was a wonderful gift to you from your family. It's a gift that will bring you a great share of abundance and affluence over the course of your life.

Another source of the More mindset is a firmly held spiritual belief. Spiritual beliefs are so deep inside us that they have the power to shape and direct our thoughts, our mindsets, our attitudes and, of course, our actions.

I happen to be Christian. I came to that position as an adult, at a time when I was searching for some meaning in my life. I came to it as a result of a pretty thorough study of spiritual issues and religious paths. As a result, I have a deep-seated belief that God instilled certain gifts and talents in me, and that part of my appropriate response is to consciously exercise those gifts and talents in a way that strives for a more complete and influential use of them. In other words, more!

Tips from the troops ...

Before you meet, fax your agenda. That way your customer is prepared for the conversation you'll have with him or her.

So, regardless of my upbringing, my deeply held spiritual beliefs have moved me to the More mindset.

Perhaps that is your story. If so, again be thankful that you have acquired the More mindset. It will lead to a richer and fuller life for you and those around you.

It may be, however, that you don't have More Mindset (M2) to any great degree. You vaguely sense that you can probably do better than you are, but it's not anything that you think much about. Or it may be that your more measure is temporarily down at the moment. You are going through a time of self-doubt. Your confidence is down, your self-image is suffering, and you are wondering if you are ever going to be more successful at this job.

Regardless of which of these two situations best describes you, the solution is the same. You need to replenish your more mindset. You need to reinvigorate your capacity to strive for more.

I have found that the best way to do so is to take charge of your thoughts by controlling the quality of material that goes into your mind. Instead of listening to talk radio or the latest "you left me sad and blue" country station, listen to a motivational or educational CD or cassette in the car. Instead of checking out every e-mail solicitation, subscribe to inspirational and educational e-newsletters (like mine!). Instead of hanging around with people who are complainers and fault-finders, surround yourself with upbeat, successful people. Instead of reading the latest psycho-mystery novel, read biographies of successful people (or buy my books!).

All of these are conscious choices you make that directly impact your thoughts, and your thoughts are the components of your mindset.

Want to improve your mindset? Want to increase your more measure? Take charge of the material that goes into your mind and watch your mindset shift.

Time management begins with a more mindset. You will never be a truly effective time manager without it. Make a decision right now to feed your More mindset.

The More mindset provides the first strand in our kite string — the energy to change in positive ways, for the rest of your life.

The next strand in your braided kite string provides the basic overall strategy that you will pursue in your quest for more.

More Mindset:

A set of deep-seated beliefs that you can and should have more, accomplish more, and be more than you are now.

The basic time management strategy

A house painter was determined to be the best, most profitable house painter in town. So he invested in the latest spray equipment, bought the quickest snap-together scaffolding and ladders, and trained at the gym to strengthen the muscles he needed to paint quickly. Using all these techniques, he painted his first house in 27 hours, when all of his competitors would have taken 40 hours to do the same job. As he sat in his truck and admired his work, he looked again at his job order and realized that he had painted the wrong house! He was incredibly efficient, and not at all effective.

Effective: Doing the right things — those things that will get you the best results.

Efficient: Doing things in a minimum amount of time.

This is one of the most common time management misconceptions resident in salespeople. Often, they focus too much on becoming efficient instead of effective; busying themselves with 1,000 tasks in the course of the day, but rarely stopping to ask if these are the right tasks. They'll buy a cell phone so that they can make phone calls from their car between sales calls. But they don't stop to consider whether those calls are worth making in the first place.

I can't emphasize this issue strongly enough. Gather 100 field salespeople together and ask them for a definition of time management, and 80 of them will talk about doing more in less time. While a little bit of that is appropriate, that is not the path to greater success in your job, less stress, and more enjoyment of your personal life.

Salespeople who view time management as the process of jamming more tasks into a day find themselves exhausted, highly stressed, burned out, and wondering why they don't accomplish more when they are working so hard. They become cynical, their blood pressure rises, they get irritable, and no one can stand to be around them. Not a pretty picture.

The way to the benefits that you want from smart time management is to follow the road called effective, not efficient. It is not doing more in less time; it is doing the best things with the time you have.

You can make great strides in time management and quantum leaps forward in your productivity by focusing on that which is effective, instead of just what is efficient. That means learning to prioritize that which will bring the greatest results from the smallest effort, not doing more in less time.

This focus on becoming more effective is the basic time management strategy for field salespeople. You'll find it cropping up over and over again throughout this book. If you are going to make the kind of progress that you hope to, then you must understand and commit to this basic strategy.

That's the second strand in our kite string.

The third strand provides the limits to your behavior, helping you to focus precisely.

Crystallizing your values

Imagine the More mindset as the engine that provides energy for your quest for better time management. Image the effective vs. efficient strategy as the basic path toward the attainment of the benefits you want. The final piece of the puzzle, the third strand of your kite string, is a set of values that hold you in check. Clear values provide boundaries around your journey so that you don't lose yourself in the rush to achieve your goals.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople"
by .
Copyright © 2003 Dave Kahle.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Introduction: It's a Daily Battle!	5
	The First Time Management Secret: Get Grounded!	15
	The Second Time Management Secret: Think About It Before You Do It!	37
	The Third Time Management Secret: Think Right!	53
	The Fourth Time Management Secret: Prioritize Your Customers and Prospects!	81
	The Fifth Time Management Secret: Stay on Top of the Flow!	107
	The Sixth Time Management Secret: Clean out the Gunk!	119
	The Seventh Time Management Secret: Create Systems!	137
	The Eighth Time Management Secret: Stick to an Effective Sales Process!	161
	The Ninth Time Management Secret: Nurture Helpful Relationships!	177
	The Tenth Time Management Secret: Stay Balanced!	191
	Index	213
	About the Author	219