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The Sales Buzz Issue 173 - Sales Activity Time - Make it work for you
September 03, 2012
Hi,

Are you getting the most from your sales activity time or are you doing what you find comfortable and cosy. See these ideas on increasing your productivity and generate new business...



Sales Activity Time - Are You Wasting It

What I see a lot of the time are sales people and small business owners spending a lot of their valuable sales activity time communicating with people who are never going to be a customer.

They meet, talk, and network, with people from within the same industry or marketplace and it’s really easy to talk to them because they have lots in common.

Now and again there maybe some business that gets passed around in this cosy group of friends.

But the majority of the time spent networking will never result in a sale.

Sometimes the sales people from competing companies get together for a meeting so that they can look at ways of working together going forward.

Even when both sides are genuine, and they want to look for ways of combining resources, unless one or both sides have specific needs that the other can fulfil there will rarely be any new business generated.

I’ve even heard some sellers claiming that time spent on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, and other social network sites is selling activity. Really? My advice would be to read on and put some reality checks in place.

Your sales activity time is valuable, make the most of it.


If you’re meeting for a chat then admit it

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with meeting someone from your industry and exchanging stories over a coffee. It can be good to talk to someone who experiences the same challenges that you do.

But don’t confuse this with sales activity. Sales activity is when you contact or meet with what is, or could be, a potential customer. Sales activity is all about selling and to do this you have to be getting in front of people that you can go through the sales process with and close the deal.

Prospecting, appointment setting, and presenting sales proposals, these are all sales activities. Going to a breakfast meeting in a room full of other sales people is not selling. Enjoy the breakfast, feel comfortable in a room full of people like you, but don’t confuse this with sales activity.


Time for a reality check

Let’s check out your activity and see if it’s productive. Follow these simple actions and see if you are making the most of your selling time:

The next time you spend time on a social media site such as facebook, twitter, or LinkedIn, make a list of the people you have spoken to or sent a message. Check your list and see how many could be potential customers. Be honest, which ones could actually buy something from you.

When you have read an update left by another person ask yourself, will I ever generate a sale because I read that update.

After the next networking event run through all the people you met, check the business cards you collected, and count how many are buyers, how many could you sell your products and services, and how many were sales people just like you.

As you do this you will start to see a good link between real sales activity and opportunities to increase results. By doing this you will start to become aware of how you can use this link to be different and give yourself an advantage.

If you want to increase sales then making your sales activity more productive is a great step in the right direction. Get into the money making habit of checking whether what you are doing will bring in more business and you will click right into making the most of our precious selling time.

For more selling tips they don’t teach on sales courses click Sales tips...








I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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