Article

Want to Sell More? Protect This Over Everything Else

How much time do you spend interacting with prospects on a weekly basis?
If you are like many of the sales professionals I work with, the answer is around 20% of your time.

The rest of your time is spent on what I refer to as “indirect selling” activities, which most often consist of:
-Internal meetings
-Sales meetings
-Updating your CRM
-Researching new prospects

There’s a problem with all of this. You see, these indirect selling activities don’t help you sell.

In my forthcoming book, The Sales Multiplier Formula, I discuss what I refer to as the Sales Time Trap.

It refers to how, as a new salesperson, you have nearly eight hours a day to focus on direct selling activities. However, as time progresses, you have more customers to interact with, more people in the company know you and pull you into meetings, and the time available for direct selling diminishes.

In other words, the longer you are with your company, the more indirect selling activities you are expected to participate in.

The biggest culprit of them all is internal meetings.

My advice? Protect your direct selling time like your life (and career) depend on it.
Don’t give up your precious prospecting time to sit in internal meetings that don’t directly relate to making more sales.

Is this easy to do? No, it’s not. In fact, you may be seen as an outsider or someone who doesn’t collaborate well with others.

Well, if you spend time sitting in meetings regularly, then you will sell less. 
What do you think your boss will frown upon more – you participating less in internal meetings or you selling less?

My guess is the latter.

Samuel Goldwyn once said, “the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

When it comes to direct selling activities, you need to work hard AND be consistent.

So be critical of requests to sit in internal meetings. Educate those around you on the need to maintain (or increase!) your direct selling time.

Ultimately you, and your boss, will be happy you did.

© Shawn Casemore 2023. All Rights Reserved.

Shawn Casemore is a speaker, consultant, and author of the forthcoming Unstoppable Sales Machine (due out September 2020). To learn more, visit www.shawncasemore.com.

© Shawn Casemore 2022. All Rights Reserved.