Time Management

Time Management:

Time Management is not a subject specific to phone sales, nevertheless it is still of the utmost importance. This is especially true when your job is to call prospects all day as part of a lead generation ,lead prospecting or lead qualification team.

It is important to manage your time accordingly to make sure you have enough time each day to call your new leads as well as your long term follow up calls. Make sure to take breaks to maintain your full energy levels.

One strategy that helps me is to write down my tasks for the next day at the end of every working day, then review this list at the start of the following day. This daily activity plan helps you maintain focus and increases your chances of completing all your daily tasks. If possible arrange the list in order of difficulty or importance and then tackle the hardest (or most important) task first – thus guaranteeing every day to be a successful day.

Remember that you are in charge of your schedule so don’t let your inbox, calendar or colleagues dictate your daily schedule. Shut off all distractions and take back control of your own time. This does not mean saying no to meetings or not responding to emails but instead try to schedule meetings at a time that does not interfere with your calling schedule and ask colleagues to respect that. Your own voice gives clues to others on how you manage your time.

The same goes for your clients or prospects. Make sure you control your own time and therefore it is important to know when a prospect is wasting your time so you can learn the “NEXT” technique set out by Mike Brooks (Mr. Inside Sales). He teaches methods for knowing when to move onto the next prospect once you have realized that you no longer have anything to gain from the one you are speaking with now.

Setting yourself small daily, weekly or monthly targets ensures you maintain a healthy level of motivation.

Don’t take rejection too seriously and definitely don’t take it personally. Try to gain some small wins even within the rejections so that your mindset is always positive when making that next call.

Sales enablement and sales acceleration tools can assist you in being more efficient and productive. I will discuss this in detail later on.

A nice tip I was once given was to group my calls. This means calling similar prospects one after the other allowing you to build up momentum with the similar and repeatable tasks and/or sales pitch.

Later on we will also discuss the importance of planning before each call you make. Having a clear call objective can make all the difference in turning your calls into successes. 

When is the best time to call your prospects?

Art Sobczack in his book “Smart Calling” quotes the survey conducted by www.sellingpower.com  which found the following:

•Thursday is the best day to contact a lead. It was 20% better than Friday which was the worst day

•8am to 9am is generally the best time to call business people. Then 4pm -5pm is the second best time. This is especially true for decision makers in managerial / executive positions because they are primarily in meetings during the day.

However “Smart Calling” throws all of this out of the window and says it does not matter what time or day you call!!

It matters what you say and how you say it! 

If you are not calling all day then what else are you doing and how do you expect to succeed?!
Don't waste valuable time; make sure you spend as much time as possible on the phone calling your prospects. 

However there are industry specific rules that must be followed. Such as not to call a restaurant at lunch time (their busiest time) and also always be aware of time zones for different geographic locations.

The key is to measure your own success in your industries to find your own winning formula. (breaks, lunch times, in-between meetings..)

Here are some proven techniques you can adopt to ritualize your calls:

•Set fixed times to focus only on calls (no emails, meetings, messages, colleagues..) and always stick to these times. Some people call these POWER HOURS. These work best when all distractions are turned off and all your pre-call planning has already been prepared. generally these should be scheduled for 3 times per week.

•End with a positive note every day, even if it is a small win such as a secondary target.

•Best days to call are days no one else is calling (late December, early Jan, Friday afternoons, before 7, after hours, weekends (be careful with this one), bad weather days such as snow etc…

•Follow up calls – always ask when is best. Ask the PA or the prospect himself. Make a note of when they have answered and not answered your calls so far.

•Warm up the prospect before making your call – If legal add to mailing list and send intro email before calling with news or relevant intro.

•Send snail mail – old school but works. Even sending unusual items can work.

What time management techniques work for you?