Managing Time More Effectively

Managing time can be like grasping the wind; you just can’t do it! What you can do is manage yourself. We call this “Self Mastery”, and it is a key factor in moving your business and sales forward. Since this skill set is complex, let’s just focus on the first step in managing your time. It’s called “How to Have a Productive Morning”.

You Need Focused Time to Build Your Business and Sales

Morning is the perfect time to accomplish all the things that build your business. Get started before anything has a chance to stop you – even yourself. You can manage your day best if you don’t have a chance to hum and hah about it beforehand. The key is to not allow anything to distract you. That’s right: turn off your e-mail, no surfing the net and no incoming calls. All of that can wait. It only takes two hours every day to build your business. Choosing to devote this time to work on building the business is the one action that will lead to your success. As a Performance, Business and Sales Coach I continually encounter people who are so busy with the urgent things that pop up that they have lost the ability to manage themselves and lose precious time in the process. Maintain this time in your mind as a ‘must do’ action. You need to put time into your business for it to succeed.

But what should do you, exactly, during your business building time? Well there are three power actions that need to be accomplished as part of your time management.

Coaching Tool – Develop a Productivity Power Trio

Here’s what you need to know to build your “Productive Morning”.

• Skill building – 30 minutes

Take time every day to develop better skills, including to practice your dialogs for interviewing and contacting prospects. Work on this just before you interview any potential clients so that you’re warmed up to talk to them. If you don’t yet have a prospect process (the steps you use to find, maintain and close new client deals) take the time to develop it and then begin to practice it.

• Revenue generation – 60 minutes

Dedicate one hour each day consistently to generating and interviewing new potential clients. This is the time you use to find new clients. You can do this over the phone or in person. If you choose to do these in person use this time to book those in-person appointments and make sure to allow more time in your day to meet with those people. Consistent prospect management over a long period of time leads to the business you have been dreaming of.

• Follow-up – 30 minutes

Return all calls at the end of the morning along with any follow-up you may have to do. Having a follow up system that you know when and how to follow is critical to your client relationships. By managing the number of incoming calls that you have and only returning calls at the end of the morning, you will have no interruptions to take you away from your schedule.

Congratulations! You are one step closer to managing your time and mastering yourself.