You can't manage time.

Interesting concept when you consider there are thousands of salespeople and managers every day trying to improve their time management.

I challenge you to manage the next minute! Cant do it. Time passes. When you are doing what you like or are with people you enjoy time seems to speed by. When you are doing thinks you hate or are with people you dont like time seems to creep by very slowly. The rate of time does not change. Your perception of passing time does. Time management is a misnomer. If you are having trouble managing time Ill be you are having trouble managing:

-people
-resources
-decisions
-procrastination
-success
-failure
-emotions
-feelings
-problems
-attitudes
and so on.

The inability to successfully manage any of the above will result in a time management problem. To improve time effectiveness you must improve one or all of the above.

My research shows the typical salesperson spends 10-20 percent of their time selling and 70-80 percent doing everything else. Isnt it amazing that you can earn an income in sales spending less than 30 percent of your time selling? Imagine what you could do to your results and income if you could increase that number only 10 percent?

Time Management and effective time use is a function of many skill and attitude; prejudices, attitudes, habits and personal philosophies. No one can manage time. If a person has a time management issue or problem it is most likely due to a weakness or lack of ability in some other area of their life. In order to improve ultimate time use a person must identify these tendencies, attitudes or weaknesses and then develop skills and abilities to address and overcome them. You cant improve time use, it is a nebulous concept.

The keys to improving time use and territory management are to:

-know yourself
-know your tendencies
-know your strengths
-know your weaknesses
-know your goals-
-identify your common time wasters
-have a prospecting strategy
-establish regular planning times
-be ruthless with your self-discipline

Territory management is the ability to maximize your results, reach your goals and effectively build your business in your territory while satisfying the demands and expectations of your management team and customers.

-Know your prime time. What is prime time? It is that time of the day, week or month when you are at your best. Are you a morning person? Late night person? Other? Does your energy fade during a certain time of the day or week?

How about your Prime Time PLUS- This is that combination of time when you are at your best and your customers/prospects can see you. For example if you are a morning person and a client/prospect wants a conference call in the morning- this is your Prime Time Plus. However if you are an afternoon person (your energy, creativity, imagination) peaks in the mid afternoon and you are not at your best in the early morning and a prospect wants a meeting in the morning this is not your Prime Time OR your Prime Time Plus. The key is to schedule critical sales activities during Prime Time Plus and non sales activities during you non Prime Time Plus.

Each of us has numerous demands on our time, energy and resources. One of the keys to sales success is the ability to balance multiple:

-demands
-expectations of customers
-requirements of our position
-personal needs and desires
-tasks
-routine activities
-family roles
-personal needs and desires
-expectations of our supervisors
-personal growth possibilities
-and much more.

It is no wonder that many salespeople burn out early in their career due to the inability to successfully handle all of these issues, challenges and requirements. If success is one of your agendas you will ultimately have to:

-eliminate something from your plate
-better manage all of these issues and roles
-get better organized
-or live with the continued stress of poor organization

I am sure you know the feeling of being overwhelmed - the need to satisfy everyone and everything in your life as well as the desire to create a sense of peace in your life knowing that you - while working on other peoples issues, expectations and demands - have not abandoned your own requirements for success, achievement and success as you have chosen to define it at any given point in your life.

You have also most likely known how you have felt when you have finished a day, week or month with a great deal of unfinished business. Everyone who hopes to do more, have more, become more, learn more and contribute more will, sooner or later, have to confront their own needs and style of what personal organization means to them. No one can tell you how to organize your life and career. What learning can do is help you identify where growth, change or a new philosophy is needed so you can regain some sense of harmony while climbing the ladder of personal success, whatever that means to you. Lets take a brief look at a few of the issues that will require your attention as you attempt to better organize your time, territory, career and life.

One of the key characteristics in effective territory management is to do a better job of qualifying prospects prior to giving them your time, energy or corporate resources. Lets look at a few ways to better manage your resource of time and territory management.

1. Ask more effective questions earlier in the sales process.
2. Pay attention to their answers to determine whether this is a good time to try and sell this prospect.
3. Develop a customer profile to use as a template for your prospecting.
4. Audit your sales call activity by dividing the number of calls you make in a week by the number of miles you drive in that week. This number will give you your call route effectiveness.
5. Spend more prospecting time getting referrals.
6. Develop strategic alliances to help you improve your prospecting activity.
7. Plan you call activities early in the week, month or day.
8. Dont give poor prospects more time than they deserve.
9. Develop a daily checklist of what you will need to do to be effective.
10. Try to get more of your prospects to visit your location, plant or office.
11. Dont spend time giving presentations to non-decision makers.

What are some common time/territory management attitudes?

1. There is always tomorrow.
2. There are too many demands made on my time.
3. There is too much paperwork.
4. My geographic territory is too large.
5. I have too many prospects/customers.
6. I dont have anyone to delegate to.

Always work from a list. Working from lists is one sure way to ensure that you:

-dont forget to do something important
-work on the important stuff first
-can feel good about your day
-end the day/week/month without neglecting an important task, activity or role
-can enjoy the time you have
-get more satisfaction from your lifes responsibilities
-get more done
-can sell more
Work from lists of things TO DO. Heres how.

1. Male a list.
2. Prioritize the items on the list according to your goals, needs, desires, activities, demands etc.
3. Start with the important ones (must dos) first.
4. Finish these before you move to the less important ones (should dos)
5. Finish these before you move to the unimportant ones (will dos if I get time)

Work from lists and you will get more done in less time.

-planning
-contemplation
-reflection
-relaxation
-fun
-thinking

Develop the habit of spending a certain amount of time each day/week/month and year in solitude or mini breaks for recharging your battery. It doesnt matter if it is walk in the park, slow relaxed meal, meditation time or just sitting doing nothing.

Paperwork is not going away, not in this lifetime anyway. It doesnt matter how technically oriented your organization becomes, there will always be paper reports; information to share, something to write, forms to complete, reports to evaluate or analyze and some piece of paper that finds its way to your desk or mailbox. The key is to honestly and effectively determine whether you want or need to spend time on this stuff or whether you can discard it without negative consequences. Lets take a brief look at a few of the paperwork demands on your time.

1. Expense reports
2. Call reports
3. Territory reports
4. Customer reports
5. Customer history reports
6. Forecasting reports
7. Goal or quota reports
8. Competitor evaluations

Here are a few ideas to consider while managing paper.

1. It is a myth to believe that you can handle each piece of paper once.
2. Technology will never replace someones need or desire to have a hard copy of something.
3. Lets face it depending on who wants the information a customer, your boss, a fellow employee or another department will determine your attention span and response time.
4. Most people are not good communicators on paper. They either go on and on and on with endless dribble OR they give us far too little information to help us make a decision.
5. Sooner or later someone/everyone wants to be copied on everything/something.
6. You need a priority system for handling your administrative tasks.
7. File any notes you take during telephone conversations or appointments.
8. Establish a reading file.
9. Use expandable file pockets instead of hanging folders.
10. Keep your briefcase organized.
11. Have an effective follow-up system.
12. Have an effective suspense action system.
13. Do difficult tasks first thing in the day.
14. Use a pencil for scheduling appointments.
15. Confirm all appointments.
16. Send yourself e-mails as reminders.

So, how can you streamline your paperwork?

1. Allocate a specific amount of non-selling time to administrative requirements.
2. Dont let paperwork/reports get in the way of you prime time selling activities.
3. Make a daily/weekly appointment with yourself for reports/paperwork.
4. Categorize your administrative tasks into:

-A- Must dos now/today.

-B- Should dos now/today if you have time.

-C- You will do when you finish youre As and Bs

5. Form the habit of keeping daily records so at the end of the week it isnt as big a chore to complete a report or administrative task/function.
6. Organize you routine tasks reports/roles in such a way that they can be completed easily.
7. Delegate what you can to a subordinate, staff person or another department.
8. Have your mail screened by a support person.
9. Create files for your paperwork: routine, urgent, archive, action today, action this week, action this month, suspense, action this year, pending, to review, to read, when I get time, from my boss, customer requests. Get creative here the more you have the easier it is to keep track of everything.
10. Subscribe to a book review program.
11. Spend a half-day a week or month in the library catching up on industry

information/trends.
12. Write responses on memos/faxes/e-mails rather than create a new document.
13. Keep things brief, short and to the point. Avoid editorializing.
14. Keep your memos, reports, correspondence accurate not perfect.
15. Develop a standard format or template for al of your routine reports.
16. Have a self-rating system for how well you think you are doing managing your paperwork.
17. Develop the habit of asking yourself: do I need to do this? Do I need to do it now? Can someone else do this?

Territory management, like time management, is a function of many attitudes, habits, values, skills and beliefs. It is also a function of:

-the geographic size of the territory
-the number of clients/prospects in the territory
-the method of travel through the territory i.e. air, car etc.
-the non-sales responsibilities within the territory.
-the degree of administrative sales support

Here are a few territory management ideas to consider that can improve your results.

In order to effectively manage a sales territory it is critical that a salesperson have a prospecting strategy a rational for how much time, energy and resources to give to each type of prospects/customers. Many salespeople travel hundreds of unnecessary miles each week or month and still do not effectively cover his/her territory. Without this prospecting strategy it is impossible to get better use of ones time and have effective territory coverage.

1. Get a flash pass to speed up routine travel.
2. Bring reading material on the road (entertainment, self-help, business related)
3. Leave important contact telephone numbers with people who may need to reach you.
4. Use meals to meet with clients, associates suppliers.
5. Have someone review your incoming e-mails while on the road.
6. Use a contact management system that permits access to all necessary client/prospect information while traveling.
7. Read or write while on the plane.
8. Use a map software in the car or have current maps with you.
9. Get directions to your destination before you leave.
10. Confirm all reservations before you leave: cars, hotels, limos, airline reservations. 11. Have a duplicate schedule with you while on the road and leave one with a spouse, associate, subordinate or friend.
12. Travel during non-rush hour periods.
13. Get Cell phone caller ID.
14. Develop an office travel file which can contain: documents, itineraries, articles to read, information to review etc. Keeps everything in one place.
15. Use a journal while on the road to keep track of objectives, actions, messages etc.
16. Stick with your typical routines while home such as: eating habits, exercise routines, reading etc.

You have heard it thousands of times in sakes time is money. How about time is life!