Doing the Sales Two-Step

What holds salespeople back from selling more?things that have little to do with achieving goals.
They don't spend enough time selling!Become a master of structuring activities for peak
Salespeople typically spend twenty-five to thirty-eightefficiency.
percent of their time devoted to selling and getting#2 - Start scheduling your top priorities first
orders.The concept of "fit" or knowing how to fill up a jar with
The rest of the time is spent juggling balls, dealing withrocks, pebbles and sand illustrate the importance of
mistakes, fixing problems, fulfilling orders, searching fordoing the critical things first:
information, spending time in unproductive salesStart with a large jar. To fill the jar completely, put the
meetings, managing inventory, collecting data forbig rocks in first. Next, add the pebbles and finally, fill
company CRM reports, and servicing accounts tothe jar with sand. If you have a jar filled with rocks,
reduce customer costs.pebbles and sand, you have effectively filled in the
No wonder salespeople complain there's not enoughspace.
time to sell.However, if you empty the jar and fill it with the sand
Selling efforts must be organized for maximumfirst, you will not be able to put all the rocks and
performance; time is a limited resource. You may bepebbles back in the jar.
working to hard to get things done, but the sales job isJust like getting the big rocks in the jar, manage time
to work smart and make things happen.by scheduling priorities before you move on to less
Successful Selling Is About Productivity, Not Activity.important tasks.
Here's a simple two-step plan to help focus on whatDon't lose track of what you're hired to do or what the
really matters; closing deals and making sales.sales job is. Salaries, commissions, advancement,
#1 - Stop creating a daily schedule of things to doadded responsibility and security are based on your
Every action we take does not have equal impact onability to perform.
achieving success or reaching goals.What separates average salespeople from top sales
If you don't use this principle to your advantage it'sperformers is focus. Get more efficient at doing what
likely to accelerate poor performance and eventuallyworks and dumping what doesn't.
lead to failure.Don't try and do it all, just do the sales two-step. It's
Use time and organization as a selling asset. Without aonly what you sell and the deals you create that get
sense of priority, time may be eaten up dealing withmeasured, applauded and rewarded.