In sales, you can work one of two ways. You can either do the
things you should do or you can do the things you want to do.
Sometimes these are one in the same, but more often they are at
odds with one another. However, this article isn’t about doing
the right things, it’s about showing you what things to avoid.
If you can figure out how to control each of these 7 things on a
daily basis, you’ll be well on you way to selling success.
Eternal Email
Eternal email can occur several different ways. The most common
of these is checking your email every five minutes in eager
anticipation of something new. Another way to waste your day
with email is by relying on it for long messages or
conversations that last longer than a few sentences.
To control your email instead of the other way around, set aside
two or three scheduled times a day to check it. Also, never have
a conversation over email that could ever be misinterpreted
because of the rigidity of writing instead of speaking. Embrace
your telephone for communication with your clients, prospects,
and colleagues. In the age of information overload, a friendly
voice on the other end of the phone can greatly separate you
from your competitors who are taking hours of their client’s
time with excessive emails.
Personal Phone Calls
How many people do you know at your office that take at least a
dozen personal phone calls a day? I bet at least one or two
people came to your mind almost immediately. Do you know why?
Because taking personal phone calls is one of the most
distracting and unprofessional things you can do in a corporate
environment and is immensely irritating to co-workers. If you’re
concerned with productivity, this should be one of your most
irritating pet peeves.
If you don’t think that taking personal phone calls at work is
such a bad thing, then you may be the very person at the office
that everyone is complaining about.
In sales, if you’re having problems with personal phone calls, I
recommend putting a little note on the receiver of your phone
that says “Can this Wait Until Later?” Most of the time, when
you take a personal call at work, it’s because you think it has
to happen right now. Ask yourself this question before taking
any personal phone calls at the office and you’ll quickly start
to take less time each day with distraction.
Unplanned Internet Research
A killer for sales people is surfing the internet for hours at a
time and justifying it as prospect research. Should you do
research every day on your clients and prospects? Of course you
should, but only if it doesn’t interfere with your more
important tasks such as meeting with clients, following up with
prospects, and asking for referral business.
The key to overcoming unplanned internet research, as well as
many of these other distractions, is planning your day the night
before. Lay aside a reasonable amount of time each day for
research (probably between 30 minutes to an hour) and make sure
you don’t go outside of that time the next day. Try to keep this
philosophy for your sales research, only do research that you
plan to act on in the next 24 hours. That will prevent you from
doing any research that you might forget before having the
opportunity to use it.
Running Personal Errands on Your Sales Route
Whether it’s dry cleaning, grocery shopping, buying shoes, or
anything else, keep your personal errands out of your business
life. Why? Because you have a limited number of hours each day
to sell and you can’t afford to spend that time on things that
aren’t making you any money.
In sales, everything should be weighed according to its
opportunity cost. You probably remember this from your economics
class in college. Basically, opportunity cost means the cost of
something in terms of an opportunity foregone (and the benefits
that could be received from that opportunity). Whether the cost
is time, safety, or money, nothing is ever totally free. So when
you’re picking up your dry cleaning during time that you could
be making phone calls, the opportunity cost of doing that is the
amount of money you would be making if you were making calls
instead of picking up your dry cleaning. Measure everything in
sales by looking at the opportunity cost and you’ll find that
making decisions about what to do first becomes much easier.
Running Your Day Without a Plan
If there’s anything on this list that probably kills more sales
people that any other, it’s trying to function without a daily
plan. Study the life of any successful sales person throughout
history and you’ll quickly see that planning is a common thread
that runs through all of their careers.
The worst thing I’ve seen that happens to dozens of sales people
is that they manage their day according to how they feel. When
this happens, you can work for an entire day without ever
accomplishing anything significant. Don’t let this happen to
you, make a plan and follow it every day.
Some of the things you should plan into each and every day are
new prospect development activities, follow up activities,
research, and planning. Everything that moves a sale from
beginning to end should be planned into every day.
Long Term Marketing During Work Hours
This one may not hit home if you’re not responsible for the
branding and marketing of your product on a more national or
long term basis. But for those of you that are selling for a
small business, or own a business, this one is just for you.
Long term marketing includes writing articles or books, working
on your web site, putting together marketing material, and any
other similar activity during business hours. If you’re in the
very first steps of developing your business model then this
material has to be created before you can really selling, but
for those of you that just aren’t convinced that your marketing
material is top quality, or your brand positioning needs a
little work, you’ve got a constant temptation to do this during
work hours and it will kill your sales if you give in to it.
You’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot and that mean selling
during normal business hours and working on long term projects
after or before business hours. If you think that sounds too
difficult for you, guess what, you’re in the wrong profession.
When you decided to go into sales, you agreed to a whole
different lifestyle than your computer programmer friends.
Non-Business Work During Business Hours
This is the catch-all for all those other things that you do at
work that don’t make yourself or your company any profits. This
includes paying bills, reviewing your 401K, balancing your
checkbook, writing poems to your girlfriend, playing video
games, watching movies, and so on. All of these things have a
time and a place in life, but it’s not at the office when you
need to be selling. If you find yourself gravitating to these
activities every day, I recommend getting some professional
help. A great way to start would be to sign up for my Nacke
Gazette where you’ll find encouragement and success tips in your
inbox every couple of weeks.
Overcoming non-productive activities in sales is probably
something you’ll struggle with your entire career. By being
mindful of what you’re doing and fighting against distraction,
you’ll see greater and greater success throughout the years.

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