True Selling Worth
True Selling Worth
As an entrepreneur, sales trainer, and mentor, it has been my experience that business professionals do not place enough focus on the true hourly worth of their selling time, and thus, spend countless hours on tasks or activities that mean very little to their short or long term success.
Why?
In most cases, they don’t fully realize how much selling time they are actually wasting because they have never really kept track of time expenditure, and don’t know how to figure out what their selling time is really worth.
It is my belief that the business person that fully understands the importance of being productive during hours related to selling will almost always perform better than the business person that ignores hourly worth (and time expenditure) all together.
To that end, this article is designed to give you the knowledge of how to make your selling time work for you so that you can make the very most of your selling efforts and become more successful in the process.
Moving right along, the first thing I’m going to do is provide you with a method for determining your true hourly worth, and than a method for determining your current productivity level.
Then, I will offer suggestions for how to ensure that you are operating at maximum productivity during each hour of the day that you focus on sales.
So, without further delay, let’s get started.
Step # 1: Determining your hourly worth
Determining your hourly worth is quite easy if you use the simple mathematical calculation below.
Start with the total revenue you plan to achieve this year as a result of your personal sales efforts (say $1,000,000 – varies by industry) and divide that number by 52 (weeks per year) to get your worth per week. Next, divide the number you found above by 40 (hours per week) to get your hourly worth and that is what you are worth (per hour) to your company during every hour of the selling day.
For example, using the formula above, the calculations would be as follows:
$1,000,000 / 52 weeks = $19,230.77 (weekly worth)
$19,230.77 / 40 hours per week = $480.77 (hourly worth)
In this case your selling time is worth $480.77 per hour
Now that we know your true hourly worth, we have to figure out if every one of your selling hours is currently producing at a level of $480.77 per hour to determine if your days are as productive as they could be.
Step # 2: Figuring out how you currently spend your selling time
To determine if you are spending your selling time in a productive manner, you will need to track all of your tasks for an extended period (say two weeks) so as to figure out how you spend every sales focused hour of the day. In this step, literally keep track of how many minutes you spend doing every task during each day and put the findings on paper. Any format you use will be acceptable as long as your entire day is broken down and accounted for.
For best results, it is crucial that you be completely honest with yourself during this exercise.
If you find that you are actually spending a lot less time then you think taking care of non-revenue producing activities, don’t be surprised. A recent study showed that the average sales focused person spends just 93 minutes in front of customers each day.
Staggering but true.
When you are trying to determine how you spend your time each day, be sure to include every activity. A daily average after two weeks might show the following time allocations:
Driving Time – 95 minutes
Socializing – 110 minutes
Coffee Breaks – 35 minutes
Administrative Tasks – 65 minutes
Actual Selling Time – 105 minutes
Customer Office Waiting Time – 30 minutes
Lunch – 45 minutes
Total Selling Time: 105 minutes
Assuming this was your findings, you now know that you’re not even spending two hours engaged in sales activities each day, and therefore you’re certainly not producing at a level of $480.77 every single hour. I had a similar finding several years back when I broke down my own time expenditure and I chose to do something about it. Not only because I was shocked by the finding, but also because I was excited about the fact that I had just found a way to put more hours into my day.
Now the good news.
If your goal is to double your revenue this knowledge might be able to help you do so. The calculations above tell you that doubling the amount of time you spend on sales related activities might in fact help you in doubling your revenue.
In the sample provided, that would mean simply finding a way to spend 210 minutes in front of customers each day as opposed to 105 minutes.
Now, let’s see what we can do to make sure this newfound knowledge doesn’t go to waste.
Okay, so let’s conclude that you would like to double your revenue, here are 4 simple ways you can strive to do so.
1) Make yourself accountable: A great way to ensure that you spend your time wisely is to make yourself accountable. For instance, now that you know your hourly worth and how to track your daily time expenditure, try posting a note with the following words in several visible places: “Is the task that I’m doing right now truly worth $480.77 per hour”???? Places in which this note could be placed include your desk, your car, your bathroom mirror, etc.
2) Learn to say no: Depending upon the nature of your business and your staff’s experience level, you might be able to say no to certain tasks or internal meetings that are interfering with your personal productivity. Delegate when it makes sense to do so but be careful here in how you handle saying no. The idea is to make you more productive, not hated by staff.
3) Minimize social chatting: Learning to minimize weekday lunches with friends and extended coffee breaks with talkative staff is a great way to reduce wasted time. Just be sure you don’t completely rid yourself of relaxation and socialization. I’m not trying to turn you into a workaholic here. Just trying to make you more productive. I truly enjoy good conversation and I understand that this is a tough one to confront. Especially if you too enjoy conversing with friends and staff during the work day, but you must strive to keep the eye on the prize and keep socializing to a minimum during your selling time.
4) Reward yourself: Every time you can truly say that you increased your productivity during a week or that you feel you had a productive and successful week, reward yourself. Be strict with the rewards and only allow yourself the reward if you truly earned it. In no time at all, you’ll find yourself wanting these little (or big) rewards and you’ll work even harder to make sure you earn them. Rewards can be great motivators. Just make sure that you can afford the reward. I don’t want you to go broke trying to get rich.
True Selling Worth - To learn more about this author, visit Corey Poirier's Website.
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WHAT’S YOUR SELLING TIME REALLY WORTH?
As an entrepreneur, sales trainer, and mentor, it has been my experience that business professionals do not place enough focus on the true hourly worth of their selling time, and thus, spend countless hours on tasks or activities that mean very little to their short or long term success.
Why?
In most cases, they don’t fully realize how much selling time they are actually wasting because they have never really kept track of time expenditure, and don’t know how to figure out what their selling time is really worth.
It is my belief that the business person that fully understands the importance of being productive during hours related to selling will almost always perform better than the business person that ignores hourly worth (and time expenditure) all together.
To that end, this article is designed to give you the knowledge of how to make your selling time work for you so that you can make the very most of your selling efforts and become more successful in the process.
Moving right along, the first thing I’m going to do is provide you with a method for determining your true hourly worth, and than a method for determining your current productivity level.
Then, I will offer suggestions for how to ensure that you are operating at maximum productivity during each hour of the day that you focus on sales.
So, without further delay, let’s get started.
Step # 1: Determining your hourly worth
Determining your hourly worth is quite easy if you use the simple mathematical calculation below.
Start with the total revenue you plan to achieve this year as a result of your personal sales efforts (say $1,000,000 – varies by industry) and divide that number by 52 (weeks per year) to get your worth per week. Next, divide the number you found above by 40 (hours per week) to get your hourly worth and that is what you are worth (per hour) to your company during every hour of the selling day.
For example, using the formula above, the calculations would be as follows:
$1,000,000 / 52 weeks = $19,230.77 (weekly worth)
$19,230.77 / 40 hours per week = $480.77 (hourly worth)
In this case your selling time is worth $480.77 per hour
Now that we know your true hourly worth, we have to figure out if every one of your selling hours is currently producing at a level of $480.77 per hour to determine if your days are as productive as they could be.
Step # 2: Figuring out how you currently spend your selling time
To determine if you are spending your selling time in a productive manner, you will need to track all of your tasks for an extended period (say two weeks) so as to figure out how you spend every sales focused hour of the day. In this step, literally keep track of how many minutes you spend doing every task during each day and put the findings on paper. Any format you use will be acceptable as long as your entire day is broken down and accounted for.
For best results, it is crucial that you be completely honest with yourself during this exercise.
If you find that you are actually spending a lot less time then you think taking care of non-revenue producing activities, don’t be surprised. A recent study showed that the average sales focused person spends just 93 minutes in front of customers each day.
Staggering but true.
When you are trying to determine how you spend your time each day, be sure to include every activity. A daily average after two weeks might show the following time allocations:
Driving Time – 95 minutes
Socializing – 110 minutes
Coffee Breaks – 35 minutes
Administrative Tasks – 65 minutes
Actual Selling Time – 105 minutes
Customer Office Waiting Time – 30 minutes
Lunch – 45 minutes
Total Selling Time: 105 minutes
Assuming this was your findings, you now know that you’re not even spending two hours engaged in sales activities each day, and therefore you’re certainly not producing at a level of $480.77 every single hour. I had a similar finding several years back when I broke down my own time expenditure and I chose to do something about it. Not only because I was shocked by the finding, but also because I was excited about the fact that I had just found a way to put more hours into my day.
Now the good news.
If your goal is to double your revenue this knowledge might be able to help you do so. The calculations above tell you that doubling the amount of time you spend on sales related activities might in fact help you in doubling your revenue.
In the sample provided, that would mean simply finding a way to spend 210 minutes in front of customers each day as opposed to 105 minutes.
Now, let’s see what we can do to make sure this newfound knowledge doesn’t go to waste.
Okay, so let’s conclude that you would like to double your revenue, here are 4 simple ways you can strive to do so.
1) Make yourself accountable: A great way to ensure that you spend your time wisely is to make yourself accountable. For instance, now that you know your hourly worth and how to track your daily time expenditure, try posting a note with the following words in several visible places: “Is the task that I’m doing right now truly worth $480.77 per hour”???? Places in which this note could be placed include your desk, your car, your bathroom mirror, etc.
2) Learn to say no: Depending upon the nature of your business and your staff’s experience level, you might be able to say no to certain tasks or internal meetings that are interfering with your personal productivity. Delegate when it makes sense to do so but be careful here in how you handle saying no. The idea is to make you more productive, not hated by staff.
3) Minimize social chatting: Learning to minimize weekday lunches with friends and extended coffee breaks with talkative staff is a great way to reduce wasted time. Just be sure you don’t completely rid yourself of relaxation and socialization. I’m not trying to turn you into a workaholic here. Just trying to make you more productive. I truly enjoy good conversation and I understand that this is a tough one to confront. Especially if you too enjoy conversing with friends and staff during the work day, but you must strive to keep the eye on the prize and keep socializing to a minimum during your selling time.
4) Reward yourself: Every time you can truly say that you increased your productivity during a week or that you feel you had a productive and successful week, reward yourself. Be strict with the rewards and only allow yourself the reward if you truly earned it. In no time at all, you’ll find yourself wanting these little (or big) rewards and you’ll work even harder to make sure you earn them. Rewards can be great motivators. Just make sure that you can afford the reward. I don’t want you to go broke trying to get rich.
True Selling Worth - To learn more about this author, visit Corey Poirier's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan 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 |
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Linda RichardsonLinda 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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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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