*Planning Is Key To Balancing Career*
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Planning Is Key To Balancing Career, Personal Life
The people who accomplish more than the average person don’t have any more stamina than the rest of us.
If you were to question them, you would find a common denominator: They prepare a written plan each day to make the most of their time and then plod along, task after task, until each job has been done.
As with so many professionals today, the demands on the time of salespeople are great. However, the rewards can be great as well.
To balance your sales career and personal life while keeping your personal objectives in mind, picture your allotment of time in terms of a “Wheel of Activity.”
Planning is at the hub of the wheel and is the most vital aspect of every salesperson’s approach — both to selling and living. In planning, decide how you will use each hour of your precious time — from outlining the objective of each sales call to what you’re going to read or study on a particular day to continue your lifelong sales education.
With planning at the hub, the Wheel of Activity has five additional parts, or spokes, which dictate the effective use of time: prospecting, selling, service, personal and study.
Prospecting
While few would say that prospecting is their favorite sales activity, without prospects, you won’t have many customers. Therefore prospecting is essential to successful selling. Set aside time every day for prospecting and make it an ongoing activity — a part of every day, every week. Prospecting is a salesperson’s gold mine.
Selling
It doesn’t do much good to have ample prospects if you don’t follow up. Every industry has its own prime or “golden” hours, during which you’re most successful at contacting and meeting with prospects. Spend this time only selling. Shelve less productive tasks until later.
Service
Remember your customers and they’ll remember you. Closing a sale should be the opening of a relationship. This requires ongoing communication and interaction. To regularly interact with your clients between sales, spend 10 to 15 minutes daily calling one or two customers or clients for the sole purpose of learning how they are doing. These small deposits will yield tremendous future rewards.
Personal
According to The Boston Globe, Americans work longer hours than the citizens of any other industrialized nation and sleep, on average, only six hours per night (as opposed to the recommended eight).
Juggling the demands of work and home life can leave many of us feeling overworked and exhausted, to say the least. That’s why it’s important to schedule time for fun and relaxation. This means finding time for yourself and loved ones as well as finding time off from work to relax and recharge your batteries. When you plan recreation time just as you do work time, you’ll be able to relax more fully knowing that work responsibilities are handled.
Study
School is never out for the salesperson. A true sales professional is one who has committed to lifelong education and self-improvement. If the average salesperson committed to reading only 15 minutes each day, he or she would read more than 18 books annually. How much more effective could you become by committing yourself to 15 minutes of educational time each day?
When you incorporate the “Wheel of Activity” into your professional and personal life, you will become more effective. You will find each day that you are becoming happier and more successful — as a sales professional and as a person.
