If you are a salesperson, you already know that the old saying “time is money” is true. But how can you effectively use the time you have in a day to do all your tasks, close deals, do the paper writing, look for customers and have some time for yourself and your family? How can you know on which tasks to focus more and on which less?
The secret is time management. This is one of the hardest to master skills for salespeople. Learning how to prioritize tasks and maximize your time is a secret that can bring you so many benefits in your everyday job. Read these seven pieces of advice and learn how you can optimize your life and achieve the results you want.
1. List the most and the least important tasks
You would think that it is easier to start your day with the least challenging tasks. It gives you the feeling that you completed a lot by lunch time, but in fact, the only thing that you do is avoid working on the bigger projects. By the time you start your more important tasks, you will be already worn out and won’t have the necessary energy to do them.
Associate professor of psychology Robert Matchock, from Pennsylvania State University, said that the majority of people could get easily distracted between noon and 4 p.m. Change your behavior and do the important tasks first. It will be relieving to get them done, and you will have the rest of the day for the other tasks that require less attention and energy.
Start the day by making a list of all the things you have to do, then see which ones bring you the highest return on investment. For those that do not bring a high return, talk to your manager and try to reduce the time spent on them and if you cannot avoid them try to group them and minimize the for completing them.
2. Stay away from social media
A recent study made by Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange showed that a person spends 3.6 hours per day on social media. This is about a quarter of the time that you are awake. Stop wasting time by removing social networking apps from your smartphone’s home screen or your computer’s browser toolbar. You can also use apps such as Freedom, SelfControl, Anti-Social or Stay Focused.
If you believed that multitasking is a skill that can be developed, you were wrong. Scientists have discovered that multitasking is physically impossible for humans. What are brains do is just juggle attention between tasks so quick that we’re left with the impression that we are multitasking? So if you start working on three tasks at once and also check your Facebook from time to time, you will probably not complete those tasks to a high standard, and it will take more time than if you focused on one task at a time.
3. Make dead time productive
Dead time is those minutes that you waste looking out the window, waiting for an email or thinking how to get that paper written. You are wasting valuable time that you can use sending emails, planning the next meeting, a new project or brainstorming. It has no importance what it is as long as it is something productive.
4. Use reminders
There are some very useful apps that you can use to be more organized, to prioritize and to know how much time you should spend on each task. A toggle is one of these apps, and it’s an alternative to time-sheets. It helps you know if you waste time on doing some tasks that could take less to complete. Another useful app is MyLifeOrganized. As its name suggests, it helps you organize your schedule, targeting what you should be focusing on to reach your goals. The app automatically creates to-do lists that include priority actions.
5. Use your free time profitably
You can spend your free time playing computer games or watching movies the entire weekend. But, instead of doing that why not gain something from your activities? You can read some interesting books about amazing sales managers or about time management. Some great options would be Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan, 52 Sales Management Tips: The Sales Manager’s Success Guide by Steven Rosen, ProActive Sales Management: How to Lead, Motivate and Stay Ahead of the Game by William “Skip” Miller, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management by Mark Forster or Getting Things Done by David Allen. The best thing is that you can find many of these books and their writers online.
6. Divide a big project into smaller pieces
When you have to work on a big project, you get bored finding something else to do such as checking Facebook, looking for paper writing help for your next project or thinking about your next vacation. Break this task into smaller pieces so that they will get easier to work with. Make deadlines for each part of the project and mark all your achievements to make you be proud of the job you’ve done and motivated yourself. Do not be afraid to ask for some writing assistance when you need it.
7. Have fun while working
Many times the big projects, close deadlines, focusing on getting things done and difficult customers can make you forget that you love your job. When you are in this situation, always think what you can do to enjoy what you are doing. Prepare your daily tasks in a way that makes you happy and does not burden you. You can also give some tasks others. For example, there are many online writing services companies that can help you with the presentation that you have to prepare.
If you want to be more productive and time-efficient as a salesperson, what you have to do is pick from these time management hacks those that for your lifestyle and your needs and implement them. You will soon see the amazing benefits it brings on your daily plan and how it will make your work more effective.
Samantha Anderson studies Education at College. Besides classic methods, she’s looking for fresh and creative ways of engaging students. She loves reading and writes intelligence papers for Writing service WriteMyPaper.Today
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