The Lazy Sales Managers Way To Get More Done And Make More Money
Wouldn’t your sales managers love to get more done and make more money with less effort?
That all sounds great, you might say…but how do YOU actually do it?
You simply apply the 80/20 rule.
For those of you who may not know, a little history lesson first is in order…
The 80/20 rule—or the Pareto Principle, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto—states that 80% of effects is the result of 20% of the causes. For you this simply means that 80% of your sales will come from, roughly, only 20% of your sales people.
But when a sales manager applies the 80/20 rule, he can simply get more done in less time by simplifying and throwing out the time-wasters that just don’t matter.
Before we tell you how to do it, let’s first prepare you first for some eventual consequences.
For example, a good friend of mine who has a very successful business once told me a story about how the application of the 80/20 rule can be double-edged weapon in real life. Running a successful online business, he collected thousands of followers on Twitter. But he only had time to follow a handful of people—20 or so, around that number anyway—which he deemed had actually something important to say.
Most took it that my friend was being a snob. Or was he?
OK, this isn’t a “sales management” story by any means. But it is a “time management” story…and chances are pretty good that your sales managers are spending a whole lot of time on activities that are, although important for their jobs, may not have a whole lot of impact on the sales bottom line.
Do they have the courage to make tough decisions like my friend did?
If your sales managers have dreams of becoming sales management superstars, they need to filter right here and now who and what they listen to. For example, if they are constantly looking for training on sales management, they need to pick one or two experts who they identify with and have gleaned great learning and advice from and unsubscribe to the rest. Skim off the cream and leave the rest for the cows, so to speak…
Undoubtedly, there will be lots of new concepts and pieces of advice from different people trying to get in. But your sales managers don’t need all that noise in their lives.
More voices. More distractions. More overwhelm.
For sales managers who want to get more done in less time, here’s just a few suggestions:
1. Unsubscribe from the email lists that waste time. Pick out only the ones that are really worth listening to and those that are in alignment with your goals. Who you really listen to is something you need to figure out on your own…and dump the rest.
2. Stop responding to all the Facebook and LinkedIn group discussions that don’t really add anything to your career.
3. Spend less time surfing the Internet aimlessly…focus in on what you need and don’t stray. Close out your IE browser and turn off your email alerts in Outlook if these constantly distract you.
4. Create “to do” lists for the day to keep focused.
5. Create, “don’t do” lists to avoid all the time wasters.
6. Don’t engage in office discussions with people who are downers…just excuse yourself politely.
7. Define blocks of time to respond to email. First thing in the morning or late at night. Pick one or the other or maybe both.
8. Use “out of office” auto-responders on your email to alert people that you only respond to email during certain hours of the day
9. Spend 80% of sales field time with the best reps…and only 20% with the not so good ones. Get front-line knowledge of how to get the job done…then teach that knowledge to all the rest of your sales force.
10. Save 30 to 40 minutes a day by NOT having to remember all the login and passwords for all your online accounts by getting the secure password sign-in form called RoboForm…it’s an incredible free service. Get it here at www.roboform.com
To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.
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