9/16/2024-Time mgmt is not a game of perfect

The best way to feel good about where you spend your time is to have something to show for it. Get into the habit of setting goals, and then you can tie your time spent to those initiatives.

Q3’s pretty much done, and while it went fast, wait ’til ya see how fast Q4 goes!

A gravitational law called the The Seller’s Q4 Time Warp posits that once Labor Day hits, it only feels like a few days ’til New Year’s Eve.

Maybe these best practices can help you manage your time and Q4 sprint:
1. Align time spent against goals.

2. Understand where you spend your time and adjust on the fly.

3. Follow a disciplined scheduling system.

4. Manage distractions.

Today, plan your week’s schedule to spend the majority of your time against these essential selling activities:
1. Prospecting

2. Pitch meetings (F2F or video)

3. Proposal and/or solution creation/presentation

4. Strategy sessions to prepare for customer meetings

When you catch yourself spending time against non-essential selling activities – internal meetings, administrative work, and I don’t know where my time went stuff – actively move your energies back to the four items listed above.

Time is a sneaky bastard, ain’t it? It runs too fast when you need it to go slow, and vice versa.

The only way to feel good about where you spend your time is to have something to show for it. The backbone of this principle is based on the core elements of strong time management skills:
1. Understand where you spend your time.
2. Build a disciplined scheduling system.
3. Set and manage goals.

There’s nothing more tangible for a salesperson than goals. But where most sellers get confused about setting goals – and thus, dismayed about time – is thinking all goals must be hairy and audacious.

They don’t.

Goals can be small, too, but they must be meaningful.

Further, don’t confuse goals with tasks. Tasks are what you do to reach your goals.

If you haven’t yet set goals for Q4, it’s not too late. How about this one, "Exceed my Q4 quota by 20% by growing my top two accounts?". That’s a specific goal, and it’s assertive too. Now, you’re cooking with gas because you can correlate your time spent with your goals.

As you watch Jim hilariously monitor Dwight’s time in this clip from The Office, be glad your manager is not watching you like Jim. (Btw, even your manager is not perfect at time management.)

Remember, time management is not a game of perfect.