Time management in sales is an art that all managers of Lahore smart city flawlessly possess with years of experience. Undoubtedly, Managers and salespersons of other companies need to follow in their footsteps to adopt the most needed time management skill. Putting into practice actions and strategies that optimize activities and time at work is a constant pursuit. Only then will it be possible not only to sell more but also to sell better.
It’s cliché, but it’s true: time is money. So, wasting hours and hours of the month on non-sales activities will not help your team reach the goal.
Time is needed for several reasons – and you know it well.
An activity that is put off – either by procrastination or by focusing on another task – can mean that the lead goes cold.
And, well, in increasingly competitive markets, with increasingly competitive sales, this can be decisive – to the bad, of course.
Time management for salespeople ensures that the company is not only committed to improving results.
Customer experience is clearly a priority. Even because, the manager is wrong to think that it only starts after the purchase.
We have separated some strategies so that, within the day-to-day sales, the time is really well used by your team.
Want to know how to do this?
Good reading!
Why is time management so important to your team?
Maybe you didn’t know because you can’t follow your sales team closely (and in times of telecommuting it’s something even more latent).
However, many salespeople have big problems with time management. And this ends up being reflected in the results and goals and objectives for the month, quarter, year…
According to a study published by Business Wire – the survey heard 200 salespeople -, professionals reported having really difficulty managing time in their sales routine.
Some data stand out:
- 28% of salespeople do not use any system to manage time and sales;
- Only 35% of salespeople’s time is actually focused on sales;
That is, in relation to the last data, be amazed:
65% OF SELLERS’ TIME IS SPENT ON ANYTHING BUT SALES.
Shocking, right?
In good sales management, the salesperson sells. Score.
You don’t want this for your team. I mean, look how much more can be done with the same resources!
7 Strategies to Improve Your Salespeople’s Time Management
Perhaps the reality above is, today, that of your team. “Maybe” because you may not even be aware of the time spent on each activity, right?
But the truth is, if your salespeople are doing something other than selling, then you need to improve their time management.
Many of the following actions can be applied from the top down – that is, from the management to the managed.
However, some of them require the seller to carry out the so-called self-management.
Police yourself to actually do essential activities within an established business routine.
That’s why it’s important to have your team’s activities playbook well defined:
That said, let’s go to strategies to increase your team’s productivity and consequently the results?
We separate 7.
Look:
1 – Use technology to organize the routine
The first step for any company that wants to have better and better time management for salespeople is to go through the digital transformation in the sales sector.
What does that mean?
Having technology supporting each and every activity performed already helps a lot to organize the routine, centralizing all relevant information.
Especially if the company uses a sales CRM that is cloud-based. This allows any data to be accessed from anywhere.
It is also a way for the sales head or area manager to see and control what salespeople are doing.
The quantity and quality of tasks done. And know, when analyzing the opportunities within the sales funnel, if there are idle or overloaded professionals.
So, to sum up: technology organizes the routine and gives managers control over what happens in the sector.
2 – Concentration on 20%
You may already be familiar with the Pareto Principle – also known as the ABC curve or the 80/20 rule, aren’t you?
He states that “80% of sales come from 20% of customers”
This means that your team may be wasting too much time focusing on opportunities that will have little or no impact on the month’s bottom line.
That is, in customers who are not so fit with the business.
Then you would ask: “well, but then this is a pre-sales problem that passed a prospect with no intention of buying to the seller, right?”
In parts, yes. And you need to refine the persona better to hit the hand right in prospecting.
However, customers’ priorities can change along their journey, and not everything that passes through the SDR is 100% filtered.
So the sooner you and your salespeople understand who the best potential customers really are, the less time you’ll waste on fruitless opportunities.
3 – Simplify repeated tasks
This is another time management strategy that relies on technology to get off the ground.
Here, we are not talking about indiscriminately using ready -made sales scripts.
However, you have to accept the fact that many customers are similar to each other – and that your initial approach will be repeated over and over again.
So why not simplify this task that will be repeated?
Set up funnel steps for your team and establish automatic actions within CRM.
Determine that, when dragging the step opportunity, an email is triggered, for example, with some pre-configured message.
It makes ZERO sense to copy and paste emails all the time – even changing the potential customer’s name – every time you approach someone, right?
With one click – literally – after setting up CRM, your team can accomplish this task.
Look how much time is not saved on this task alone?
4 – Start grouping things
The routine demands many repeated tasks. So, to save time, why not group those repeated activities together.
For example: send all follow up emails at the same time.
Use the same logic as the above strategy, with scripts, automatic actions and specific funnel step.
It’s a way to get rid of these tasks faster, without forgetting any behind.
The same goes for the calls you need to make and even the sales demos.
How about checking the numbers of the previous day always at the same time of day? Get to work and do it in the first few minutes of the morning.
That way you and your team can focus entirely on one activity at a time – without having to interrupt and resume.
This, of course, with those actions that can be grouped and do not have urgent demand.
5 – Plan the next day the day before
The phrase may sound strange, but it makes perfect sense. Before leaving, plan what will happen the next day.
If the seller already knows that he will have 4 demonstrations to do – and that each one takes 1 hour – it is necessary to fit the other activities into the remaining time.
Analyze your schedule, see what time the demos are scheduled, and make the most of the time you have left for all the other necessary routine tasks.
Links, emails, prospecting, reports, commercial proposals, contracts…
It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to get everything ready for the next day’s journey.
6 – Limit multitasking
Multitasking isn’t exactly a virtue when it comes to the sales process.
Good time management, in fact, doesn’t resist a salesperson who wants to do it all.
For a variety of reasons, actually, but let’s focus on the obvious: the seller needs to sell.
And when anyone tries to handle more than one task at the same time, the brain constantly changes.
The speed to perform either of the two activities decreases. And people lose up to 40% of their productivity.
So the question is: what sense does it make? None.
Therefore, your team needs to be very good at what they do. Your seller in selling. Your SDR in qualify.
And so on.
7 – Get to no faster
It’s hard to give up on a sale, isn’t it? But think about it…
What is better? Try to get a “yes” at any cost (and run the risk of churn later) or just accept the no and move on to another?
Remember what we said above about fit customers, right.
It is necessary to know how to identify as soon as possible. And, yes, reinforcing: it is a job for pre-sales above all.
So, instruct your salespeople to get to the no faster – either because the customer cannot afford to buy or because the customer is likely to get in trouble in the future.
Yes, you know these things happen. It is not always worth selling in these cases.
So, how can we help you?
Enjoy and read two articles that will help your sales process be more productive.
The first talks about the importance of process automation within the sales department.
The second addresses how the 5S methodology eliminates distractions and increases productivity in companies.
Good sales!
