There is no such thing as “time management.” Here is my take on the myth. It’s a very practical analysis that leads me to my strong conviction.

How many hours in the day do you have? How many minutes in those hours? How many seconds in those hours?  All told the answers are 24 hours, 60 minutes to an hour (1,440 minutes in the day), 60 seconds (86,400 seconds in a day, 31,449,600 seconds in a year)!  I dare you to speed time up, slow it down or stop it!  You can’t.  So how can anyone in their right mind call any program or concept “Time Management?

* I am not the only one in the sales professional development field that believes time management is a myth.  See the resources at the end of this post for more information on debunking the myth of time management.

So, if you can’t manage it, what is the solution to figuring how to avoid having more to do than the time you have to do it?  The obvious solution is this:

Do a better job of managing the time you have

In order to do that, it is helpful to understand what could be causing the lack of self-management that leads to insufficient sales behaviors and prospecting. You might have a substantial revenue flow from the business you already have so therefore lack the motivation. Some salespeople make excuses and blame service or account management for their own lack of self-management. Could also be that you have a fear of rejection.  Let’s face it, none of us like to be told ‘no’. We find that many salespeople lack an effective phone approach, so avoid doing the activity. And finally, many have a need for approval, which is when a salesperson would rather do an activity that is easy and gratifying, than face the difficult job of prospecting and calling sales prospects. Does any of that sound familiar to you?

Here are some Rules to help you manage the time you have:

• Don’t make excuses for your inability to allocate time for prospecting
• Learn to discern the difference between ‘pay’ and ‘no pay’ activities and spend at least 33% of your time on ‘pay activities’.
• Use time blocking to identify your pay activities and then use time blocking in your calendar application. (You should know at least 30 days in advance what activity you will be doing at 2:00 on a Thursday). 
• Be effective with people and efficient with things
  • Stop trying to have ‘quick meetings’
  • Start scheduling the appropriate amount of time with cushion on both sides of EVERY meeting you schedule
  • Embrace technology designed to help you become more efficient at communicating, scheduling, and managing your practice.

Tactics to help you:

• Time blocking: Use your calendar app as a true self management application instead of an appointment placeholder.  If I where to look at your calendar I should see, in addition to appointments, time blocked off for:
  • Your personal time
  • Your planning time
  • Time for pro-active, intentional prospecting
  • Administrative work
  • Internal meetings
  • Lunch meetings – networking activities
  • Sales appointments
  • Appointment preparation; pre calls, post calls, and 1 on 1 coaching for skill improvement
  • Research
  • Putting out fires

This is what it looks like:

• Discernment: To help you discern between the two boxes on the left side of the matrix above, you must ask yourself these three questions every time you are tempted to sacrifice your sales prospecting time in order to get something else done that has popped up in your day to distract you.
• If I don’t do this RIGHT NOW…

1. Will someone die or become seriously injured, ill or be in jeopardy?
2. Will I lose the client?
3. Will I lose my job?

How likely is it that you will answer yes to any of those questions?  Not likely.  So, your challenge then is to be comfortable delaying your response instead of delaying your go to activity – prospecting.

*Additional resources debunking the time management theory.

• The Enterprisers Project.  Need more convincing? Keep reading
• Forbes article 10 myths of time management
• Entrepreneur 5-time management myths that affect your workplace productivity
• Understanding the Sales Force What do Sales Managers Do with Their Time?

Sales success starts with a resolution, but finishes with a revolution.

Some important Revolution dates for reference:

1516 - Protestant Reformation

1776 - Colonial Revolution

1789 - French Revolution

1861 - Civil War

1800 - Industrial Revolution

1971 - Technology Revolution

These revolutions came about because individuals had resolved to "change". The changes were not easily started, executed or finished. There were significant costs in terms of money, resources and lives lost. In the end, however, the end justified the means.

Here are the changes I would like to make in 2019:

1. Go Green. Not environmentally, but from an execution perspective. I will be tracking 5 metrics for success in 2019 and will inspect them weekly. When I meet or exceed my goal, I will inspect that effort and duplicate it for future efforts. I will also recognize that anything below 90% of my activity goal is a failure.
2. Re-align my time usage to reflect my priorities and track my actual time usage for the first 90 days of 2019. By then, I should have developed my habits to reflect my objectives and priorities.
3. Have an attitude for success. Half the battle of sales success is owning your own style and having faith in your skills, knowledge and abilities. If you believe you will win, your likelihood of winning increases substantially.

If you are going to have a "different" year in 2019 than you had in 2018, then something must change. Aside from solely talking about change, you must have a concrete plan to actually change, along with a process to stick to that plan. It will not be easy, it will probably not be fun for a while, and you will have your doubts. But you must "burn the boats" if you are going to succeed.

Happy New Year and best of success for you!

If you liked this article, check out more of our material at ACTG

Today, I want to talk to you about time management vs self management. Now, here's one thing we know about time, it manages itself very, very well. In fact, you don't have to worry about time managing itself, what you do need to worry about, at least what we see around the country as we coach and train salespeople, is the concept of self-management.

The reason why you need to worry about it is because of this fundamental truth, your future self cannot be trusted.

How many times do you go to the grocery store and decide that, this is the week I'm going to eat healthy only to throw away most of it by week's end?  That's right, your future self cannot be trusted.

So, one of the things that we'd like to talk about today is the concept of what do successful salespeople do when it comes to managing themselves?

Self management, not time management.

I want to give you four things that we think successful salespeople do. 

• Successful salespeople do not waste time - Here's a number, 1,440 - or better yet, the number of minutes in a day.  Successful salespeople DO NOT waste even one of them.  So, make them count!

• They abandon to-do lists - They abandon to-do lists. Sounds crazy right? However, research has indicated that about 41% of things put on a to-do list never get accomplished.  Instead, successful salespeople schedule tasks directly onto their calendar, which has a much greater likelihood of these tasks actually getting accomplished.

• Successful salespeople only check their email a couple times a day! Maybe once when they get to the office, maybe once after lunch and maybe once before they leave for the day. Is it really necessary when that beep or that ding goes off to look and see "Oh my goodness, what is that?" It interrupts your flow of energy on the tasks you're working on and successful people do not allow email to be a "time suck" on their day.

• Successful salespeople do the hard things first - I think it was Brian Tracy that said, "If you gotta kiss a frog in your day, kiss it early."  Successful salespeople embrace that. They do the hard things first. Including scheduling the hours that they will prospect. 1,440 - I've used 3 or 4 of them this morning...it's up to YOU to use the rest. Have a great day!

So, now that we've given you OUR top four, what are some other habits that YOU think successful salespeople should follow? 

Leave a Comment below for a chance to win a Free copy of our "9 Keys to Coaching Sales Success" booklet! 

Time Management vs. Self Management Video:

https://anthonycoletraining.com/self-management/

My wife and I just came back from Minong, Wisconsin where we visited with our friends, Barb and Gerald O’Dell.  Gerald, Barb and I go back a long way, over 30 years. We all met and worked together at Iowa State University.  We parted ways for awhile until Gerald became the athletic director at the University of Cincinnati.  Later, Gerald, a man of great integrity, decided it was time to leave UC and leave athletics for good. That was over 20 years ago.

After a day of catching up and retelling old stories (Linda, of course, heard many of the stories for the first time), we settled into a routine talking about our current lives.  In one of those conversations Gerald shared with me a practice management approach to his “to do” list.  Gerald told me that, a while ago, he consciously changed his thinking from, “Things I have to do” to “Things I get to do”.

Wow.

If you think about it, there is a huge difference between what I have to do and what I get to do.

• I have to pay taxes.
  I get to go on vacation.

• I have to take out the trash.
  I get to eat great meals and live in a cool home.

• I have to go to work.
  I get to help people fulfill their potential.

The other night, I set the alarm on my iPhone.  If you’ve done this, you know that you have a chance to set the time, a chance to select a sound (the song I wake up to is “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” sung by the Irish Tenors – a must hear) and, if you can, an opportunity to title the alarm.  Until then, I had simply titled that alarm, “Wake up.”  It now reads, “What I get to do tomorrow.”

What’s interesting to me, though it might be boring as heck to you, is that when I see the title in the evening, it sets the tone for my night’s rest as well as the entire next day.  Instead of thinking and stressing over what I have to do, I have a smile on my face thinking about the things I get to do.

• I get to talk to people and find out about their business.
• I get to work with people in my company that are dedicated to our mission.
• I get to coach sales managers and observe them improve as their skills change and confidence grows.
• I get to talk to executives about business solutions for finding sales talent and growing sales.
• I get to convert really cool ideas into client-focused solutions.

I’m not generally one to put forth challenges in these articles, but today I’m making an exception.  I challenge you to think differently about what you do and what your role is.  I challenge you to take some time to write down the things you have been thinking of as “have” to do.  Then, take the time to translate the “I have to” list to an “I get to” list.

But, don’t just do this as an exercise.  Invest in the process and let yourself get excited about all the things you get to do both professionally and personally.

A guest post by Jack Kasel, Sales Development Expert, Anthony Cole Training Group

The Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” I don’t remember reading any accounts of Aristotle conducting sales training, but I believe he would have been pretty good at it.

I have a statement and a question that tie into Aristotle’s quote on habits:

• The systems you have in place are perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting.
• Do you own, and do you like, the outcome you produced?

Habits + Systems = Outcomes.  I think I can get agreement that, if both habits and systems are excellent and well thought-out, the outcome will be what it needs to be.  The problem is this: if either habits or systems are bad, the outcome will never be what it could be.  Here’s the good news though – you are in control of both the habits you create and the systems you follow.

Let’s take a look at habits.  There are many you can create.  One of the best habits you can develop is setting aside an appointment, each week, to meet with your most important customer.  That most important customer is you and the habit you must form is to never… under any circumstances… break that appointment.  During that appointment with yourself, plan and set goals for your week, read things to improve your skills and craft or just spend time organizing yourself.  You will be shocked how much better you can be by investing 30 minutes each week.

What systems do you have in place that will help you succeed? What are key factor you need to achieve to succeed in sales?  Are they introductions?  Cold Calls?  Appointments? Presentations, etc.?  What’s your conversion ratio?  How many calls turn into appointments?  How many appointments turn into presentations?  Have a system, measure the activity, find the gaps, do the things necessary to fix them.

Finally, let’s look at outcomes.  Do you own the outcome you’ve created?  Another way to look at it is, when something doesn’t happen the way you wanted or needed it to, do you look out the window for the reason or do you look in the mirror for the reason?

So, there you go.  A simple formula . . . Habits (good or bad) + Systems (good or bad) = Outcome. If you own the outcome and don’t like it, fix the things on the left side of the equal sign.  Finally, always remember this: Someone needs what you do; go find them.

SUMMARY:
So, change your habits and you will change your outcomes. Remember: schedule a 30-minute weekly appointment with yourself to…

• Spend time organizing yourself
• Plan and set goals for the week
• Read to improve your skills
• Develop a system and measure the activity
• Find the gaps and decide how to fix them