What is the most important part of our job as salespeople?  I think it is to get new business while maintaining what we have.  Therefore, if that is the most important part of our job, what do we need to make the difference?  Yes, your appropriate behaviour, but that is not the answer I was looking for.  Without prospects or customers we have nothing.

Therefore, prospects and customers are the most important component in our jobs. Because of that, we have to be constantly thinking of prospects and clients in terms of when they want to be contacted or visited, what their needs and desires are and what we can do for them in relation to satisfying those needs and desires.

With this in mind, when is the best time for you to be contacting and spending time with prospects and customers.  For those selling business to business it is mostly between 9 and 5 business days.   Others, like real estate agents or those in business to consumer sales, it is mostly in the evenings and weekends.  We have to determine when the best time is to be in contact with out target market and focus in on those times.  I like to refer to this as revenue generating time or pay time.

Pay time is that time of day when you can be in contact with customers, because that is where your revenue is coming from.  So, let’s define pay time behaviors as those behaviors that lead us to the accomplishment of our goals or sales quotas.  This would include networking, prospecting, telephone, follow up, face to face, presentations, customer service, and so on.  Take a moment and identify the pay time behaviors that you need to conduct on a daily basis to meet your goals.

Now let’s take a look at when these pay time behaviours should be conducted.  As a salesperson, your job is to be proactive wherever possible and reactive less frequently.  You know when your customers prefer to be called on.  If you are selling business to business, you know that Monday mornings and Friday afternoons are not the best of times to be calling on prospects or clients.  However, other times during the week are.  Your job is to identify the best times to be in contact with your target market and to carry out those pay time behaviours during those times.

There is also the opposite side of pay time behaviour and that relates to the behaviour that is required that generates absolutely no revenue - no pay time behaviours.  These are the things we have to do as salespeople – fill out call reports, write letters, send and reply to e-mail messages, complete and submit expense reports, attend sales meetings, training and attend to other corporate demands.  None of these activities of behavior will lead to generating more revenue or pay, but have to be done.

It is these no-pay time behaviours that you have to control.  You still have to do them, but it is when you do them that will make the difference.  You must not ever do no pay time activities during pay time. Do no pay time activities during no pay time – when you can’t be with a prospect or customer or generate any revenue.  Times like before or after closing hours, holidays, weekend, etc.

Way too many salespeople do not manage their time well.  They use no pay time behaviours as excuses to avoid pay time behaviour.  Manage you behaviour activity during the appropriate pay and no pay times and you will generate more sales, revenue and goal results.

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