So, you have decided that you consider that you are personally suited to the environment of Sales meaning that you are positively minded and not easily discouraged, you are naturally personable and that you ‘love a challenge’ and are extremely hardworking.

This is a great start and now you – presumably – have found a company with which you can readily identify in terms of the product they sell, one which seems to be a thriving, growing organization with a good reputation for quality and integrity? They presumably have good medical benefits and of course a good pension scheme…. As paying for these late can be extremely costly!

Fantastic! Like the proverbial combination of match and gasoline you are ready to set your world afire with success!! Now let’s look at exactly how to channel that potential and energy to maximize the benefits to you!

Have you heeded the lesson of the 6 P’s?

What is this?

Proper Preparation Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance

Just like any quality house renovation project the best outcome will be directly related to the preparation you put into it. So, it will be for you and your success with Sales

If you haven’t an office to work out from – albeit a cubicle partitioned off within a larger office space – then you must designate a room in your house which can function as such. This was covered in previous blogs. Now to tackle a major factor in your success:

How to manage your time effectively

When it comes to perhaps the most important of all your choices – how to manage your time.

Your effective sales time starts when you are on your territory and not the time you set out to your territory!

When I was in Sales, I knew of some who started driving to their ‘patch’ or sales territory at 9:00 am on a journey that takes 2 hours and then left their patch in time to be home at 5:00. This means that they literally spent 50% of their working day unproductively by driving and …. you probably guessed it … their sales performances were not particularly stellar)

If you have a large territory and driving to it requires daily long journey times, then you may need to consider staying in a hotel for a few days to allow you to be working your patch from 9 am to 5 pm

Remember…

To remain as energetic and positive as possible when meeting customers you need to be adamant about one thing, when you are ‘in the office’ you are ‘at work’ and when you are not you are ‘at home’.

Give time to those things that are important to you …and avoid burnout!

Sales can creep into your day so much that you can find yourself working easily 12-hour days…. And that’s a recipe for ‘burnout’. So, the challenge is always not to work harder but smarter!!

A good technique to use!

The first thing I would recommend is for you to look at your territory…. on a paper map that you can pin to your wall of your office wherever that map. Then draw a circle that covers the whole of your territory or patch with a dark marker and subdivide that circle into segments (72o each) with the numbers 1-5 to represent Monday to Friday.

This will be the basis of your schedule and by adhering to this schedule you will keep consistently covering the whole of your patch.

I sometime encountered an inquiry from a current customer who ‘needed to see me’, so by consulting my territory map I could see when I was scheduled to next be in his area and frequently was able to arrange an appointment accordingly. This often prevented me from disrupting my ‘time on territory’ management.

A compass is your friend.

The next organizational step!

The second thing I recommend is that you look at the list of the Company’s current customers in each of those segments and you will need to make introductory calls as soon as you can! When you are in your designated section of your patch that is the time too to look at potential customers in the area. If you have not inherited a list of contacts, then this is the information you will have to glean from internet sources etc. prior to contacting them in person. You may consider getting further information on how best you can organize your ‘patch’ from reviewing the following information : https://amzn.to/49PU3gt

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My next piece of advice is to write this information with all the facts which are available on 5in x 7in index cards, per section of your patch to make up a system whereby existing and prospective customer information is stored … and don’t forget to update them regularly!

Make sure that you really know your stuff!

Now you may think he’s going to say, ‘The next step is for me to make phone calls to make appointments…!’

Nope!

The next stage is to make sure you really know all aspects of your product. Remember to your customers YOU are the company!

Prior to accepting the position, you may have had some familiarity with the products you are promoting but now you really must know all about it!

If it is a physical product where it is made, what warranties apply, what are delivery times, servicing needs etc. If it is a chemical product, who makes it, what health constraints (if any) apply to it and the limits of its use and application. Where was it made? How was it made (quality and source of materials)? What are the delivery times? What are the discounts that you can apply? What other discounts are applicable (for bulk purchase etc.)

Know your ‘enemy’

Of equal importance is for you to know about the competition’s products to the same degree as you know your own. When I worked for NCR Systemedia Division in the UK, we sold forms handling machines. Our main competitor was a firm who made a similar range of products. So as sales personnel we had to be able to make accurate comparisons between the performance of our competitors’ equipment to our own and then cite the ‘benefit’ to our customer how it was better for him should choose our company’s products over theirs.

Sometimes simple differences like physical size, delivery times, service contracts were sufficient to win the sales contract.

So, are you ready to step out on to your patch and become a ‘super salesperson’?

You are close but you are still not quite ready!

Yes, you are indeed getting closer but there are some key aspects that you have yet to consider before you can successfully ‘launch’ into your new career.

Check the next blog, lesson 5 in this series to get more… so that your ‘launch’ will be the best possible!

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