Time Management and Focus

There is a path that will provide you with success, goal fulfillment and many other rewards. It is your challenge, as a sales professional, to find the right path and set a clear direction. The key is proper time-management. How you spend your time determines your rewards in sales. Choosing correctly is difficult and may be your greatest challenge, however the rewards can be tremendous. Here are a few tips on keeping the proper focus and putting your time into activities that will lead to success.

Personal Mission Statement

A personal mission defines success for you. Your mission defines the service you will provide to others, and is not limited to selling, but all aspects of your life. The rewards you receive are in direct proportion to the amount of value you bring to your customers. This value is defined in your personal mission statement. It is your starting point and a reference for identifying the proper use of your time and setting goals.

Priorities

Everyday we are faced with choices. They may come at us from many directions and seem overwhelming at times. We choose how we will respond to this stimulus and from them establish our priorities. For the most effective use of your time, focus on the priorities that you create and not your reactive responses to life's situations. This requires you to realize that you pull your own strings and control your destiny. Most people can succeed in a variety of endeavors, yet fear usually drives us into a set pattern. Fear becomes the driving force behind setting priorities and the greatest limitation to success. Avoid this trap and realize you can make it happen; your only limitations are the laws of nature and time.

Reflection

Monitor your use of time on a daily basis. Are you doing the things that will lead to success in your life? Are you living your mission statement? Reflection is the process of staying on track and maintaining focus. Intelligence can be defined as awareness. Reflection on time usage is a part of self-awareness and critical to proper time management. Are you making decisions based on fear or on what is in tune with your personal mission statement?

Find a Mentor

Find someone that you can talk to about your goals and focus. A good mentor will not tell you what to do, but rather help you decide the proper direction or focus. Mentors see the world from an outside perspective and can help you with the reflection process by asking skillful questions. They also help you recognize limiting fears and help you find ways to move beyond irrational, un-focused thinking and towards what is really important to you.

Make use of Technology

Technology is a tool that helps us accomplish more in less time. Make use of technology to help you organize and accomplish priorities, as well as, improve your efficiency. Technology is especially good at accomplishing many simple tasks quickly. This should give you more time to focus on important priorities. In sales, technology can become a competitive advantage. If you are not on top of technology, your competition will be.

Review your Focus

Re-set goals and know when to change directions. There are times when your focus must change. This generally happens because of a change in your market place. Keeping abreast of changes in the market is a very smart thing to do. Predicting the future of the market place is genius. We are capable of doing this if we focus on how we can better help people. This is the magic of your personal mission statement and your ability to change with the times.

Keep Balance in Your Life

Maintain a sense of balance in your life to help you better handle stress. This is done by constant, weekly attention to four critical areas of your self-development. Spend time developing your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual parts of who you are. This is done both on a social level or alone during introspective time.

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David Acheson David Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns.  David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website

Leanne Hoagland-Smith Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

Dave Kurlan Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development.  He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

Linda Richardson Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website

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Thomas Young Subscribe to Thomas's articles (Visit Thomas's Website) Thomas Young, MBA is a marketing consultant helping companies increase revenues. He is the author of Intuitive Selling (www.IntuitiveSelling.com) Thomas Young is a Platinum author on EvanCarmichael.com

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