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Principle #1: Maximize Your ROT

Spending your time wisely starts with paying attention to how you spend it. Only when you decide to take control of your time will you have the power to stop squandering it. The best starting point to a better ROT is to conduct your own time-efficiency study. Evaluate your current use of time by breaking down a typical day into hourly increments. Be objective. Include everything throughout your entire day, even the time you sleep. You may need to track a full week or two to get a clear picture of your time usage.

The next step is to review your time log and classify the activities as time-wasters, obligations, or priorities. Time-wasters are just that, activities that distract you and contribute nothing toward your goals. Eliminate them. The danger is that time-wasters are activities performed out of habit. Usually, they create a false sense of productivity but actually produce few or no results. The cure comes in the form of personal organization, the process of incorporating structure into your day.

Obligations are the dutiful responsibilities of your job. They are necessary yet unimportant activities, usually performed throughout the day. They contribute indirectly to your goals. They are the administrative aspects of your job such as call reports, expense reports, quarterly forecasts, and various other required duties. Despite the challenges of limited time coupled with increased responsibilities, you can be productive by evaluating your current usage of your 24 hours and maximizing ROT. Obligations cannot be overlooked but be cognizant of the negative impact they have on daily productivity. As you become better organized you can streamline your activities, minimizing the time spent fulfilling obligations. You may be in a position to delegate some of your administrative duties to support people (internal customers) within your office. I know of some sales entrepreneurs who have hired a part-time assistant. Maximize your ROT by doing what you do best, selling.

Priorities are the activities that contribute significantly to your ROT. They are directly responsible for your results, moving you closer to your goals. Remember, companies today pay for results, not activities. They no longer pay for attendence, they expect results.

As you evaluate your current use of time, the time-wasters will become clear, allowing you to rethink your activities. Make the shift from a long day filled with unproductive busyness to a shorter day focusing on priorities. As a sales entrepreneur, challenge yourself to be more proactive by prioritizing your tasks. Take control of the activities that prey on your efficiency, compromising your ROT. Once you complete your time-efficiency study, you will be shocked to see the time wasted reacting to other people's demands and requests. Most of us habitually spend our days reacting instead of being proactive, unaware of the costly consequence. I suggest that up to 75% of our day is reactive. A sobering thought.

Principle #2: Know What Time It Is

If you are like most salespeople, you have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. To get ahead in today's fast-paced world, you've got to be aware of what time it is. I'm not talking about telling time, you learned that years ago. What I'm talking about is: It's not enough that you're doing a particular job right, you've got to be sure that you're doing the right activity at the right time. By the way, if you don't have a good watch, get one. The best and simplest time management tool is on your wrist. Common sense tells us that we should spend the majority of our time working on high-priority A and B accounts. Most of us don't. We waste a lot of time in the adult daycare center reacting to the demands of C accounts or even performing C activities. The first step is to take control of your entire day by knowing what time it is.

Principle #3: Manage Your Time

Time management is a personal process. It takes a strong commitment to change long-established habits. According to the 80/20 rule, we get 80% of our results from 20% of the things we do. This statistic supports the observation that we spend a lot of time on time-wasters and obligations. Imagine the impact on our time efficiency if we increased the 20% to 30%!

What takes us from a time-starved day of routine, frustration, and stress to a productive day filled with accomplishments? Change. One definition of time management is doing fewer things in less time. Wouldn't that be great?

Research suggests that effective time management strategies can free up a minimum of two hours per day. For example, time management studies show that we spend up to 70 minutes a day just looking for stuff. How many times have you said, "Just a minute, I know it's here somewhere." We misplace files, reports, memos, and letters, and our desks look like the movie Twister was filmed in our office. Clutter can be a huge time-waster, not to mention the embarrassment of lost or unanswered requests. Your goal isn't to have a nice neat desk, but to get organized so that you can convert wasted time into productive time. However, with a clean, orderly desk, you'll improve your time working on priorities that will make you money. Your quality of work will also improve.

The underlying objective of effective time management is to utilize all available resources to increase face-time, the time spent talking face-to-face with existing customers or potential customers. If you're an inside salesperson, increase talk-time. Take some time to determine how much time you actually spend with customers. Take a stop watch and clock total face-time in one entire week. On average, it's only two to four hours. Shocking! This statistic serves as additional proof of the inordinate amount of time consumed by time-wasters and obligations. I recognize that with leaner companies salespeople are often saddled with more of the administrative aspects of the job. Unfortunately they become high-priced administrators.

How many times a day should you ask yourself if you are making the best use of your time? If you answered "several," you're right. Only you can answer that question honestly. As the president of ME Inc., don't compromise your ROT by blindly filling your day with busyness. Restructure your day to eliminate the time-wasters and minimize the time spent fulfilling obligations. Sometimes working in the office on a project or on a presentation could very well be the best use of your time. I doubt that you can ever eliminate time spent in the adult daycare center, but you certainly need to minimize it. Use janitorial time to fulfil your obligations.

As part of your time-efficiency study, you should determine the time of day that you are most efficient and productive. Know your peak time, the time of day you are at high energy. Not everyone has the same peak time. Some of us are morning people and others are afternoon or evening people. Pay attention to your moods and high-energy time of day to determine when you're most productive. Morning people can accomplish more simply by getting up an hour earlier each day, and night owls can carve out time for administrative activities in the evenings.

Once you have identified your peak time, do your worst jobs then. They won't go away so you might as well get them done when you're feeling energized. Some authors suggest doing them first thing in the morning when you're feeling fresh. This approach works well if you're a morning person but could be disastrous if you're an afternoon person. Imagine doing your worst job at your worst time of day. Two "worsts" don't make a right! In my case, prime time is during the late afternoon and early evening. I prefer to schedule important meetings or presentations later in the day, anytime after 2 PM.

Another suggestion in the interest of maximizing your ROT is to learn how to say no. Many of us are our own worst enemies. You'll never have enough time to finish your own tasks if you're always taking on more than time permits. Don't be afraid to politely refuse a request or task if your plate is already full. This includes saying no to your sales manager. When given a task, simply ask your manager, "Would you like me to do this now or would you prefer I spend the time selling?" Your manager may decide to delegate the task elsewhere. It's great to want to help others, but not at the expense of ME Inc.

Principle #4: Use the Right Tools

A professional (sales entrepreneurs included) is anyone paid to perform a task or a job at an acceptable level of proficiency while utilizing the tools of the trade to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. I am amazed at how often I see salespeople conducting business with inappropriate tools. It's as though they're exempt from the requirement to be a professional. Imagine your doctor or dentist using anything but the best instruments. Your customers expect no less of you. As a sales entrepreneur, you have an obligation to invest in the best. You may have heard it before, "A carpenter is only as good as his tools."

The solution begins with a personal planner—a time management system that offers the convenience of portability while organizing your activities, mapping your week and, most importantly, planning your day. A good planner includes twelve months at-a-glance, 365 individual day-pages, a daily to-do list section, and an appointments section. Some planners come with a rigid set of instructions, so pick a planner that offers simplicity and the flexibility to meet your personal preferences.

A planner used effectively not only buys you time, it helps you stay in balance throughout your week, including weekends. Poor time management skills result in overspending your time, running out of day before you get everything done. I compare it to managing a checking account. Imagine opening a checking account at your local bank then not using a checkbook to track the account activity. Surely you would find yourself out of balance at the end of the month, possibly overspending your available funds. Without the appropriate tool to track your time-related activities, you quickly find yourself out of balance, overdrawn on your time account.

Principle #5: Be Proactive, not Reactive

I would suggest that up to 75% of our day is spent reacting to the needs and requests of other people such as customers, managers, internal customers, family, and friends. We are constantly bombarded with demands on our limited time, leaving us unable to accomplish our own goals and objectives. No wonder we feel the frustration of, "So much to do, so little time."

We often succumb to the demands and requests of others because we think it is socially inappropriate to say no. We become victimized by others who may have a strong interest in controlling our activities or behavior—such as a spouse or a manager. Unfortunately many people, including salespeople, are content to be regulated and manipulated rather than committing to SMART goals and living life guided by their agenda, not someone else's. No one ever accomplished a personal goal by being subservient to others. Successful sales entrepreneurs refuse to be swayed by the whims of others and are quietly effective at managing their own agendas. Employers and managers sometimes do more to demotivate rather than to motivate. Demotivation can take the form of intimidation or high-performance expectations constrained by rigid management policies and limited resources to perform the job. No wonder so many people want to take this job and shove it.

A proactive strategy means developing the discipline to stay focused on your agenda, your goals, and your objectives. Part of this discipline comes in the form of qualifying the severity of a problem prior to reacting to it. For example, next time a customer informs you of a problem or a concern, resist the temptation to immediately jump into react mode, drop what you are doing, and race over to console your customer. It may not be necessary. The next time you get an irate customer (or internal customer) demanding to see you right away, follow these two steps:

1. Acknowledge the problem. Allow the customer to vent by explaining the situation and then clarify your understanding of it by paraphrasing. Be sure to take notes of your discussion for future reference. By acknowledging the concern and showing empathy, the customer will begin to feel better about it and may become somewhat flexible as to how and when you resolve the concern. A sympathetic attitude to a real or imaginary product or service failure cannot be overemphasized. A 10-minute phone call to determine the facts and the seriousness of the problem may be a valuable investment, possibly saving you hours of unnecessary running around. Work smart, not hard.

2. Suggest another time. Tell the customer that your day is full with appointments and commitments and ask if first thing tomorrow morning would be okay to get together. Your business and time are just as important and legitimate as that of your customer. You are equals. In the majority of cases, your customer will appreciate your schedule and agree to meet with you the next day. Too often we assume that we must respond immediately, but by following these steps you will save yourself valuable time. Sometimes, however, the customer may be insistent that you respond immediately, in which case you must act accordingly.

Another good tactic is to start building flexibility into your day. By this I mean schedule your day to allow for "poop happens." Allow time between appointments or activities to deal with interruptions that are sure to occur. Interruptions and problems are a natural component of everybody's day so don't ignore the fact that they happen, and plan accordingly. Don't try to pack too much into one day by scheduling consecutive appointments and meetings. Plan what you can reasonably expect to get accomplished that day and allow time to deal with inevitable interruptions. I suggest that you let the 60/40 rule be your guide; don't plan more than 60% of your day. The remaining 40% is reserved to deal with unforeseen yet inevitable interruptions. It also helps prevent the list-layover syndrome where we put unfinished to-do items onto tomorrow's schedule. If your workday is ten hours, don't plan for more than six hours. Once again, if you pack too much into a day, you will surely have to make rigorous cuts, deal with unfinished tasks, and wrestle with unnecessary stress. Remember, one of the aspects of a SMART goal is "attainable." Make your daily activities attainable.

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