Tweet

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance: Tips & Tools to Increase Productivity

Guest post by: Nancy Bleeke

Article Overview: Prior proper planning prevents poor performance. It may be a tongue twister, but it’s important to remember that our productivity is greatly increased when we make the time to prepare. Preparation is a discipline and successful professionals make the time. Here are five ways to do your homework and prepare.

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance: Tips & Tools to Increase Productivity

Prior proper planning prevents poor performance. It may be a tongue twister, but it's important to remember that our productivity is greatly increased when we make the time to prepare. Notice I didn't say "find" time. (Though, wouldn't that be great to pick up some time we found on the sidewalk?) Preparation is a discipline and successful professionals make the time.

Preparation is even more important in a changing economy. We need to change our preparation strategy during this time. What worked yesterday may not work today.

Here are five ways to do your homework and prepare.

1. Know who you are meeting with. In the overall sale, is this person the only person you should be meeting with? Are there others within this organization that should be included in the discussion? For this person, what is happening with them today? How is the economy affecting them personally? As you consider how to approach them, identify a question or two that is just about them!

2. Learn about the industry they are in. Conduct research to find out what is happening specifically in this industry today. Are lines of credit to this industry lessened? Does the global implication matter to them? What is happening with the workforce? These are good starting places for research.

3. Research the company. Have they had layoffs? Are they hiring? What is happening with their stock (if applicable)? What is their competition doing? There are many companies who have found a way to capitalize on the financial situation in the US.

4. Review notes from past contacts. What level of discussion have you had? Has it been strategic - tied to increasing results, decreasing costs or lessening risks? Or tactical - focused on one specific piece of information that is tied directly to what you offer? Prepare to broaden your discussion to strategy and help them solve business problems or create opportunities.

5. Communicate with them the way THEY want to be communicated with. Every person has a "language" they speak. Some speak facts and figures, others talk about people. Some are "quick" communicators - they like bullet points, not a lot of detail and get right to the main points. Others like to hear stories, need a ton of detail and won't be rushed. You can get an idea of their language through any communication you have had with them in the past - emails, telephone calls and voicemail messages tell a lot. If you can find them on any of the social networking tools like LinkedIn or Twitter, you can learn a lot about how they communicate. Prepare to adjust your communication to "talk their language" and the level of trust will be stronger and the information will flow smoother.

To make your preparation efficient, here a few tools to use:

1. Google alerts. Use these to receive an email when a specific industry, company, or person is in the news.

2. Use your in-house CRM system - Garbage in, garbage out. If you have input good information, now is the time to use it! If you haven't, set aside 30 minutes a day to populate your system.

3. Put pen to paper! Writing your call objective, questions you will ask, benefits you can create and problems you can solve will help you retain focus during the discussion.

The biggest obstacle to preparation we hear is the "not enough" excuse. Not enough time, not enough information, not enough value in doing it. However, in our control studies, the sales professionals who prepared were 17-25% more effective than those that didn't. How would those sales increases impact you?

What tools do you use to plan, prepare and increase productivity?

Related Articles
  Increasing Sales and Productivity: Action and Fundamentals
  How to Use 360 Assessment Tools
  Chance favours the prepared
  Seven Top Sales Tips for Success
  Total Cost of Ownership TCO of IT
  Monitoring Inside Sales Productivity
  Monitoring Productivity
  Ten Strategic Actions To Improve Sales Staff Productivity
  Science Daily Week: Which is more effective: bonuses or raises?
  Buy Efficient Resource Planning Software A Must For Organizational Success
  Warehouse Management Systems
  How to manage and motivate a team
  Interview Tips: How to Prepare For an Interview
  Vanishing Freewill
  Do Effective Online Training Needs Learning Performance Assessment
  4.1.1 Survival enterprises: The demand for training
  Nonprofit Fundraising: Improve Your Fundraising Performance
  Nonprofit Fundraising: Success vs. Productivity for Nonprofits
  How I ranked on page one of Google Overnight for Free
  How to Increase Employee Productivity?

Article Tags: discipline, economy, financial situation, global implication, homework, layoffs, poor performance, productivity, sidewalk, stock, tongue twister, workforce
Referred by: http://www.michelepw.com/



Related Forum Posts
Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web - A Web site is a great way to better service and market to current customers, but often a difficult way to attract new ones." Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web New! Don’t let the savings and productivity enhancements described in the following pages make you rush out and spend thousands of dollars overnight to have someone set you up with your own Web server, hosted Web site, or intranet.
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Re: What's your top tip for balancing your business and taking t - Proper Work management meeting your all deadlines....
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters - Hi, My name is Jeff, I work for WebBizIdeas.com and we are developing an article called "50 Most Useful SEO Tools for Webmasters." We have ranked & listed our top 30 SEO Tools but want to get your opinion on what SEO Tools are most useful to you; as Internet Business Owners. Google Webmaster Tools Google Analytics Google Alerts Yahoo Site Explorer SEOBook.com Keyword Research SEOBOOK.com SEO For Firefox Tool SEOBOOK.com Search Engine Rank Checker SEOBOOK.com Back Link Analyzer SEOChat.com Keyword Difficulty Compete.com Quantcast.com Alexa.com Archive.org Stompernet Site Seer Technorati.com PRWEB.com ADDTHIS.com SHARETHIS.com EzineArticles.com Scribd.com Squidoo.com YouTube.com StumbleUpon.com Reddit.com Digg.com Del.icio.us Wikipedia.org Flickr.com NewsVine.com Yahoo Answers NOTE: When you list your answers please include a description on what the site is, why it is important to you, and your experience please....we may include it in our article. Jeff
Re: That First Customer! - Hey Tristan, Another thing to consider is to think about how targeted your visitors are. Meaning, are they actually looking for what you have to offer, and if so, are they finding it. Proper keyword research and testing will help you bring in targeted leads from the search engines. I think this will help you get that first customer and keep bringing in more and more customers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Promoting your company and self with verve

3 Competencies of Leadership

Top Ten Feeble Follow-up Attempts to Fathom

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.