I’ll do it… Before ELMEC…

I’ll do it … when I get time

How often do we say those words or hear them in our head? Probably too often. What lies behind them is that the demands of service, selling and administration are often bigger than the time available. So does that mean that we’ll always be a day late and a dollar short?

Well, if we don’t change how we manage our time, that’s almost inevitable. But on the flip side there’s a solution. First, we can prioritize that task list beginning with the “must-do’s” down eventually to the “nice to do’s”.

And then importantly we can address time itself.

To do that we first need to understand how we’re using it. The best way to do that is to chart how we spent our week. Armed with that data, we can see the hours we spent looking at the windshield, delivering product, providing regular service, handling emergencies and making sales calls.

With that breakdown we might just see that what’s limiting us is the time spent inefficiently dashing back and forth in our territory. Or maybe emergency deliveries are the problem. Perhaps that first one lies in not having a good territory coverage plan and the second in not seeing that our customers maintain adequate supplies.

It might be a much longer list of contributing factors. But in the end, none of them are beyond our control – or at least our influence.

Before ELMEC… There were the ABC’s

In sales there’s a process that predates the Earn, Learn, Match, Explain and Close steps of selling- and that we all need to practice. Let’s call these basics the ABCs of sales. That set of ideas simply establishes the order in which we need to approach the sales process.

It holds that we need to sell ourselves first, our company second and only after those first two foundations have been met, do we even begin to sell our product. Without those two in place, moving on to pitching whatever idea or benefit we might have on mind is resting on sand versus a solid foundation.

In the absence of having established our personal bona fides there’s pretty much zero chance that much of what we’ll say will resonate. And since the company is likewise integral to delivering on most of what we’re purposing, spending a moment to establish its’ credibility might be pretty valuably as well.

Outlining your personal history in the business, perhaps mentioning some of the larger customers you service and then a bit of the company’s history and longevity, might be all that’s needed to establish that foundation on which your pitch can solidly rest.