I once worked with a strong sales professional.  He was one of the top performers in the region, just below the President’s Circle winners.  He worked well with clients, was self-motivated and knew the products inside and out.  Somehow, he always just missed the top performer perks; the President’s Circle, the stock options, the bigger office.

One afternoon, I found him by the fax machine.  “I have to fax these forms to the client”

“I understand,” I said, “But can’t one of the assistants do that?”

“No, these have to be faxed to the right number or else this whole deal will be screwed up.”

“I know it’s important, but surely we can trust our staff to fax to the correct number.”  He thought for a moment – “No, I’d better do it myself.”

Does this seem ridiculous to you?  More likely, I bet it’s a little more close to home than you might like to think.  Volumes have been and will be written about time management.  There are any number of systems and processes to make your day run more efficiently.  I won’t go in to those here.  But one thing is clear: too often sales professionals can not delegate, even rudimentary tasks, for fear that it won’t get done right unless they do it themselves.

To a certain extent, this is by design.  After all, the sales assistant has much less at stake than the sales person.  The commissions, recognition and all the rewards go to the salesperson, so naturally she will be the one to care the most and be the most likely to get the job done.

Whatever you sell, whatever your process, whatever resources you have available, be crystal clear on this point:  Whenever you are not speaking or meeting with a client you are reducing your paycheck.  It is that simple and there is no other way to look at it.  You are compensated based on the results of your interactions with clients – so more interactions lead to more business.

A top sales person uses the following example.  Imagine a tennis court.  At one end an automatic ball machine continuously shoots out tennis balls.  Inside each ball is money.  Inside some are nickels and dimes and others have $1, $5 or $50.  Every time you pick up one of those balls, you get the money inside.  How many of those tennis balls would you gather up every day?  The answer of course, is as many as possible.  Our strategies may be different; you may decide to identify only the high dollar tennis balls.  Or you could try to position yourself at a certain spot on the court.  There may be several very profitable approaches but one thing is certain: any time away from that tennis court reduces your paycheck.  That’s it.  There is no other way to look at it.

That’s not to say there aren’t very worthwhile pursuits off the court.  Catching your daughter’s soccer game or travelling with your family are all very valuable.  Skipping lunch isn’t necessarily a productive use of your time.  (After all, it is no sense being your firm’s top sales person if you die of malnutrition).  All sales people need to make decisions of when to conduct high value sales activities and when to do all the myriad tasks of life and career that don’t lead to sales.  It is ok to make these decisions – just make them consciously.

1) Is there any time during the day that you spend more than 30 minutes without speaking to a client or prospect?  Unless you have a particularly cumbersome project or very slow sales cycle, you should not be apart from clients that long.  If the 30 minutes is first thing in the morning – ask yourself  - “Is there truly no one I can speak with now?”  Are at least some of your clients early risers who may be available then?  If you are eating lunch alone,  “Is there no client who might be hungry now as well?”  Is your time really spent better reading the paper than eating with your client?  Set an alarm on your phone or watch to go off every half hour during the workday.  If you hear that beep twice without speaking with a client, you are missing opportunities.

2) What is the best time of day for you to speak with your clients?  Is your target market Doctors, Professors, College students?  What is the best time of day or week to speak with clients?  A top salesperson focuses on Dentists.  He finds that many dentists don’t work Monday mornings.  So he carefully sets up his week so that he is never unavailable to speak with clients on Monday mornings.  He never accepts office meetings, schedules training or does paperwork on Monday mornings.  If your clients do have specific access times, be very disciplined in protecting that time for client interactions.

3) What time works best for you? While your clients may have better times for interactions, salespeople also have better and worse times during the day.  For some, their best energy is first thing in the morning – so schedule breakfast meetings, get in early and get on the phones.  If you are a night person, schedule dinners and make late night calls.  If you sell nationally or internationally use time zones to your advantage.  Of course, your clients needs come first, but if possible, try to schedule as much time in front of clients for your best hours of the day.

In short, you are rewarded for the results of your client interactions.   Be very disciplined in focusing your time with clients and prospects.  Anything that takes you away from your clients cost you money.  When in doubt, get back on the tennis court.

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