Tag Archives: time management

Are you chasing too many rabbits?

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Don’t waste time chasing after weak sales leads.

One of the challenges of inside sales is dealing with an inbox box flooded with inbound leads. Usually, these leads come about because the Marketing Department sent out a promotional email at a targeted group of prospects.

The email sent out usually has teaser information and a link where someone can click to download a special report or some other information. But there’s a catch – before you can read the information, you must first attend a one-on-one or group webinar or agree to speak with a salesperson over the phone.

Sneaky? Maybe. Effective. That depends.

You see, there’s nothing wrong with receiving inbound leads. Far from it. The problem is distinguishing between good and bad ones.

How do you correctly set priorities before contacting inbound leads?

First, are the inbound leads decision-makers, influencers, or curiosity seekers?

Let’s face it – most decision-makers are not going to download reports because they’re too busy making decisions. That leaves just the influencers and curiosity seekers. So, your first task is to determine which one is which. You can do this quickly by doing research on LinkedIn or a company’s website.

Second, you need to determine what size company (e.g., revenue, employee number) is the best one to contact first.

So true.

Third, but be careful – the company size isn’t always the best determining factor. You also need to ensure if the lead works at a company or organization that would need what you are selling. Are they a good fit?

Fourth, some inbound leads will provide bogus email addresses or phone numbers. Others will leave a generic email address like Gmail in hopes that you can’t find out where he works. Clever, but rarely effective, because you can always check on LinkedIn. And, in some cases, the inbound lead may already be on your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) under the correct company name and email address. You need to look.

If that’s the case, should you waste your time in contacting them? Again, it depends. If you can tell through your research that the lead comes from a hot prospect company that you have been trying to reach for a while, do yourself a favor and use a lead generation tool to uncover the best phone number and email address. Sure, the lead may be surprised that you contacted him. But…he also may be impressed that you were persistent enough to find him.

What you want to avoid is chasing rabbits. But that, I mean you don’t want to waste so much time tracking down every single inbound lead, that you lose sight of targeting high priority ones first.

I know it’s overwhelming to receive a lot of inbound leads simultaneously. But you need to take your time, do your research and take a steady aim.

Better to bag one big rabbit, than no rabbits at all.

If you like my post, please read my book – Jumpstart your Sales Career: Help for New Salespeople.

How to Prevent Losing a Large Customer

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Sad when losing a large customer

There is nothing worse than losing a large client.

Small customers come and go. But when you lose a large customer, it can be both a financial and psychological toll for you and your entire sales team.

After the finger-pointing and blame games die down, everyone needs to take a step back, take a deep breath and evaluate what happened and how to prevent future losses.

Here is what you need to consider –

1). Why did you lose the customer?

How do you find out? Ask. Sure, sometimes customers will be evasive and give you wishy-washy answers, e.g., the budget or a change in upper management. Sometimes those answers are correct. But if you to feel that’s not the case, you need to dig deeper. There are several reasons why customers will leave you. Examples range from a competitor offered a better deal, to your customer felt your pricing increases were getting out of control.

2). Did you see the signs?

Be honest with yourself. Were their signs there and you simply missed them? Examples include your key contacts not returning your phone calls or emails. Or, there was a sudden change in management. Or, maybe some of your key contacts got laid off, were fired, or quit.  Did the financial outlook look bleak for your customer? Was there a merger or acquisition?

3). Did you stay in touch enough?

While you don’t want to be a pest, you should stay in touch with a large customer at least once a month. I don’t mean sending the usual “just checking in” email. I mean sharing important information that your customer might be interested in using for his business.  Or making sure they know about the new features or benefits that were added to your product or service recently. Or, asking if others at your customer’s company would like to see a tailored made demo or online tour on how to better use your services better. Every time you contact a large customer, you must always add value. The “just checking in” email or phone call isn’t going to cut it because everyone is busy these days. We all want to feel special. Large customers are no exception.

Are you using your time wisely

Time may heal all wounds, but losing a large client can hurt you in the wallet.

4). Are you using your time wisely?

Of course, you should always provide excellent service to all of your customers, regardless of their size and revenue. But let’s the real here – everyone in sales is stretched thin these days. Like it or not, you must set priorities. A small customer who is only generating $500.00 a year in sales isn’t going to be as important as one who is giving you $50,000 in sales. Sure, you hope that the small customer will grow with you over time. But in sales, money talks and everything else walks. You must follow the money.

That’s why if you have a large enough sales team, you need to divide up the sales process so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Examples include –

One group that handles research for new prospects. This means using lead generation tools, Google, and other sources to find companies to contact.

One group that manages existing accounts. (And I would go further and divide up the tasks between small, mid-size and large customers). This means holding customer’s hands to ensure you are taking care of their needs and concerns. Examples include being a troubleshooter for billing or shipping problems, seeking upgrading or cross-selling opportunities, and being a watchdog to prevent your competitors from stealing your business.

One group that prospects and schedules sales appointments.

One group that conducts presentations (in-person or online). This group would probably be your closers. They are the ones to make the sales pitch, handle objections, answer questions, and hopefully will see the buying signals to move forward with the sale.

And depending on the size of your company, one group that devotes most of their time on the road attending trade shows and conferences. These are your road warriors. If your company has a large enough budget, these folks could be traveling for weeks, uncovering good leads at events and handing them off to the sales team.

By dividing up the sales process, you make certain that you prevent losing more large customers down the road.

So, you lost a large customer. It happens. Stop whining. Stop complaining. Stop blaming others. Get off your ass and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

 

Who is your Biggest Competitor?

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time management

Time, not your competitors, is your biggest enemy.

When you start a new sales position, one of your first tasks is to determine who your competitors are in your niche industry.

When you start a new sales position, one of your first tasks is to determine who your competitors are in your niche industry.

Depending on where you are working, your employer may already have a list of key competitors, along with descriptions, and a cheat sheet of the fundamental differences between your products and services vs. your competition.

That’s all good news.

But some salespeople are missing the point – your biggest competitor isn’t other companies.

Your biggest competitor is time.

That’s right – time.

Think about it. It takes time to make sales calls. It takes time to do research. It takes time to enter your notes in your CRM. It takes time to leave several messages before you reach your prospect. It takes time to send and respond to emails every day. It takes time to attend sales meetings. Hell, it takes time to commute to work!

Time, then, is your most significant competitor.

How you manage your time can make a difference in achieving your goals or just getting by.

Here are 10 tips for time management –

1). Focus on your top prospects first –  However, don’t spend all your time on your significant opportunities, because depending on the industry you are in, your sales cycle could be extended. So, it’s a good idea to mix it up – maybe devote 70% of our time on your larger accounts, and 30% on the smaller ones that you hope to close quickly.

2). Set time aside for administrative work – Too often, salespeople get caught up on administrative work, and they neglect doing what they were hired to do – which is to sell. Unless it’s urgent, I find it’s better to set aside one hour in the late afternoon to handle administrative work.

3). Research – unless it’s a significant account, don’t spend too much time on researching your prospects. It’s very easy to get caught reading too many websites and LinkedIn profile pages. I usually spend no more than three (3) minutes doing research and then copying/pasting my findings in my CRM for future reference.

coffee breaks

Don’t waste time taking too many coffee breaks.

4). Snacks – rather than wasting time constantly going to the vending machine or your building’s sandwich shop, I find it’s better to bring snacks to work and put them in my desk. The same is right with water. Rather than run back and forth to the water cooler, I keep a plastic water bottle at my desk. I also bring in a coffee canister from home to save money and time at my local coffee shop. (Plus, I prefer drinking strong coffee).

5). Stay off the internet – it’s easy to get lost online these days, especially if your company gives you a lot of freedom to go on the internet. I always set time aside during lunch or in the late afternoon to go online to read the news. Even then, I keep my reading at a minimum and just skim the headlines.

6). Watch the small talk – it’s so easy to engage in conversations at work. But in sales, you just don’t have the time. Sure, you don’t want to be rude. And sometimes we all need to release tension by talking about diets, movies, celebrities, etc. But you have to work to make money. Through my body language, I try to convey that I’m busy or don’t want to be disturbed when working.  I know that can be tough to do in an open office environment. Just try to avoid eye contact and focus on your monitor.

7). Organize your email – If you’re like me, you probably come in each morning with a slew of emails to read and respond to.  With Outlook, I’ve created several folders and put my emails into each one. It saves me a lot of time later when I must retrieve an important email. Also, unless it’s urgent, I try not responding to emails until later in the day when I’m doing my administrative work.

8). Keep your Smartphone out of sight – I purposely put my Smartphone out of sight during the day. I only check my personal emails while commuting to work on the Metro, during my lunch hour, and while commuting back home. That’s it.

9). Email templates – rather than keep writing the same emails repeatedly, I have a file of email templates that I use. However, I will sometimes modify and personalize my emails before sending them out. Also, I usually keep a record of attachments (articles and brochures) that I send out, and I will refresh my attachments with new material every couple of weeks.

10). Schedule calls – whenever possible, I always try to schedule my calls and online tours. Yes, sometimes people will cancel your phone calls at the last-minute, or become complete “no-shows,” but in the long run, scheduling calls beats making repeated calls or sending out tons of emails.

I hope you like my suggestions.

Here are links to other articles on time management for salespeople –

“Eight Time Management Hacks for Sales Reps,” by Andrew Quinn
“6 Effective Time Management Techniques for Success in Sales,” by Jenny Poore

Here are some books on time management that could help you –

11 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople, 11th Anniversary Edition: Gain the Competitive Edge and Make Every Second Count, by Career Press

Time Traps: Proven Strategies for Swamped Salespeople, by Thomas Nelson

Note: If you like my post, please check out my book – Advice for New Salespeople: Tips to Help your Sales Career.

5 reasons why Friday isn’t a Slow Sales Day

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It’s Friday. The weekend is almost here. You’ve had a long week. You have secured some large orders. Now you are looking forward to receiving a large commission check soon.

Friday is not a slow sales dayWhile Friday is still a workday, you figure that you can relax and prepare for the weekend. So you’re kicking back and planning to see a movie, or visit friends, or go to that new hot restaurant you’ve been hearing about.  Maybe you have some administrative work to catch up on. Or maybe you want to catch up on your sales training by watching a video or two at your desk. Or maybe you want to take a long lunch.

After all, you’re thinking to yourself – “Fridays are slow sales days. Most of the key decision makers are taking an early weekend. I can relax.”

Wrong.

Fridays should never be considered a “slow sales day.”

Why?

1). Not all decision-makers are the same – While you may think that all key decision makers are taking a long weekend, that’s not always the case. In fact, decision-makers may be working harder to clean up their workload before they enjoy the weekend. Why? Well, because they’re decision makers and they have a lot of decisions to make.

2). The gatekeeper isn’t around – Chances are the gatekeeper is the real one taking a long weekend while her boss is working. That’s good news for you, because it means you may be able to reach the decision maker without the challenge of going through the gatekeeper.

3). The decision maker may be caught off his guard – Decision makers may think like you. They may feel that those “pesky salespeople” aren’t going to call them on a Friday, so they may end up answering the phone instead of the gatekeeper. And sometimes the decision maker, looking forward to the weekend, maybe more relaxed and open to accepting your phone call.

4). Other salespeople aren’t calling  – Because they feel the decision maker isn’t around, so they make the common mistake of doing admin work, or leaving early for the weekend. With the competition out-of-the-way, that gives you a greater opportunity to reach and speak to the decision maker.

5). You’re more relaxed – After a long week, you may feel more relaxed and less anxious when making sales calls. Knowing that the weekend is upon you, you may actually find yourself being more consultative and conversational with your prospects. Which in turn means more sales for you.

So, the next time Friday rolls around, don’t be lazy. Pretend that Friday is like any other day of the week, and continue with your same high energy workflow.  You may be surprised by the results.

Note: If you like this post, please check out my book – Advice for New Salespeople: Tips to Help your Sales Career