When it comes to sales, time is money
Learn how to effectively manage your time—ella’s way
If you’re a salesperson, the cliche “time is money” is actually true. Every minute spent on administrative tasks, jumping around from client to client, and any activity that might be a distraction could mean a missed opportunity to close a deal or warm up a prospect.
How do you get some of that precious time back? I’ve got a few great time management tips that will help your day go by more smoothly (and give you time to grow that pipeline):
Take your day one to-do at a time.
One of the biggest time wasters is jumping around from task to task. Once you’ve started a task, see it through to completion. If that’s not possible, plan out a reasonable and specific amount of time to work on a task and stick with it until it’s time to hit pause. Focusing on one to-do at a time – whether that’s prepping for a meeting, managing your pipeline, or sending follow up emails – improves your productivity, makes your day less chaotic, and saves you time.
Automate.
Are you still emailing back and forth to settle on a time that works for you and all the other people involved in your next meeting? Anyone who’s done this knows the process can not only take days – but the mere act of writing that many emails create multiple interruptions that suck your time and focus dry. Invest in scheduling software or another automation tool that allows your team/clients/prospects/whoever to find a mutually available time with just a quick glance and a click of a button.
Speaking of meetings…
If you’re running or participating in a meeting, make it count. Set aside time in advance to prepare so you’re not scrambling to catch up or get organized with the next steps when the meeting is over. You read that right – spend time upfront to save time in the long run. And pro tip: never schedule or agree to a meeting when you’re unsure what the objective is – or what your specific role is as an attendee.
Templates are your friend!
Let me start by saying personalization is key in sales, and you always want to customize your message to your prospect’s pain points. That being said, creating email templates for different stages of the sales process and then customizing them for each client is a massive time saver. Using placeholder text – which could be as simple as “company name” and as in-depth as “where/how I met this contact” – and then personalizing when it’s time to send the email takes up way less time and effort than writing every single message from scratch.
Time doesn’t have to be your enemy. Follow my advice, free up time that you used to waste, and start focusing more energy on closing deals.