Leadership at all levels knows the story: there’s more to do, fewer people around, and everything is moving faster. In the absence of step-by-step leadership, and with the velocity of change in business, it’s important that we educate ourselves to a new kind of personal leadership. The first thing to go? Time management.

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Never Manage Time – Manage Priorities

Leadership at all levels knows the story: there’s more to do, fewer people around, and everything is moving faster. In the absence of step-by-step leadership, and with the velocity of change in business, it’s important that we educate everyone in the organization to a new kind of personal leadership. The first thing to go? Time management.

Never Manage Time

Time management is a bad deal. In this, we try to squeeze the best out of the hours in a day. But everyone has 24 hours in a day. It’s a flawed mindset. And working 8, 12, or 16 hours might or might not get “more” done, but does it get the right stuff done? That’s the issue.

People also tend to fill up their “to do” list with tasks that might or might not be urgent, but that rarely align with the goals of the organization or even sometimes your own goals. The excitement of doing “to do” items clouds us from our “should be working on” items.

Priority Management for Sales People

When you work in sales you should use priority management as the mindset. The question to answer is as follows:

Does this grow my business?

Almost every sales outfit needs growth more than any other factor. Priority management for you involves learning whether your work is on propelling growth or if it’s simply serving your existing customer base.

Some mental tools for priority management in sales:

Spend 1/3 your time on new customers, 1/3 your time executing on your existing work, 1/3 your time on serving your existing customers.

Split your work between eating seeds (serving today) and planting seeds (serving tomorrow). Sometimes, you need to eat and so you have to sell and push and work on the here and now. Other times, you need to develop so that you can have future success.

If you can sell to someone once, learn to sell to them even more, IF you have more you can help them do.

If more people know about you, more people can become your buyer. Prioritize communicating and reaching out to share with others.

Priority Beats Time Management

Work on what’s important, not on “to do” items. Work on what moves the larger story ahead, not “busy” work. And don’t ever (ever!) “put in your hours.” Do the work that will grow the success of your buyer, and this will grow YOU along the way as well.

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Handling the biggest sale ever

Situation:

Picture your last very important sales interview with Mr. Big — the one that potentially represented three months quota. You know the one we mean. Going into the meeting, on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate yourself on the following scale? 1 means your briefcase is full of literature to show him, and 10 means that you have planned the call well and have rehearsed the questions you will ask to help you understand the problem in a way that fits with Mr. Big’s behavioral style and frame of reference. If you scored less than an eight, your chances of a successful meeting are less than 50%.

Analysis:

Winning the big deals in professional selling comes from believing in and executing a set of strategies and tactics that allow you to handle any selling situation in an optimal way. It is similar to professional sports. Some athletes think they know the game but the top professionals know that it takes continual training and preparation to give them a slight edge in the big game.

Solution:

Prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for every sales call. Visualize, practice and rehearse critical components of the interview. Know exactly what you want to say to set the agenda for the meeting. Know precisely how you will transition to the pain step and what questions will be relevant to the prospect’s organization and situation. Study the prospect’s behavioral style and modify your approach accordingly. Anticipate the “tough” questions you may get asked and prepare an appropriate response or question. Writing out the playbook doesn’t hurt either. A peddler wings it. The pro is prepared.

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