Part One of this feature covered the importance of conducting a Time Log, as recommended by Alec McKenzie in his book The Time Trap. Many salespeople waste so much time thinking about what they need to do next. In Part Two we look at the rewards in focusing on the right activities.
What are the activities that lead to results?
Any activity where you are face-to-face, voice-to-voice, belly-to-belly with potential sellers, listed sellers (Vendors) and with buyers are activities that lead to results. These are important activities.
There are some other important activities such as goal setting, planning, attending sales meetings, etc., but with the exception of attending sales meetings, most other important activities don’t have to be done in broad daylight. But spending as much time with customers who want to buy or sell are ‘daylight’ tasks. The golden rule is to never perform a ‘nighttime’ task during daylight hours.
Our sales program, Winning Ways – Real Estate Sales, offers quite a few time management tips, but to me none is more important that following Alec Mackenzie’s advice to conduct a Time Log. This tool will help you to identify where and how you are wasting your time and, in doing so, will teach you to better value your time and to use it on those important activities that lead to sales greatness.
Although I have told thousands of salespeople about The Time Trap by Alec Mackenzie and, although I know that many of them have bought a copy, some may have even read it, too few actually follow through and complete Time Logs for thirty days.
I even tried offering an incentive to people to do it – a benefit. Here it is:
If you are currently working for 30 percent of your day on activities that do not produce results and you double that to 60 percent, without working an extra minute, you have just doubled your sales!
Now if that doesn’t convince you to read Alec Mackenzie’s book and to follow his advice, nothing will. Such people drift through their careers, wasting time thinking about what needs to be done next, instead of learning what needs to be done, planning to work mostly on those activities, and conducting a Time Log to see if they are actually doing those all important activities.
Of course, how you invest your time will always be up to you.
You should be able to purchase a copy of Alec Mackenzie’s The Time Trap at any good book store.