Truth VIII: Gain Total Control

Don’t mistake movement for achievement. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?
- Jim Rohn

To gain total control, you need to implement three essential management systems: funnel management, time management, and territory management. Where prospecting ends, management begins. How you manage your funnel, territory and time will determine how successful you are.

Funnel Management
There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings with a prospect to develop a relationship of respect and trust. However, make sure to never find yourself in a position of calling on a prospect just to see where they are in their decision making process. Every time you meet with a prospect you should add value. Take the opportunity to meet different employees when you visit your employee’s office as well. Funnel management should be used to determine where the prospect is in their buying process and force a salesperson to take action. How often you see your prospect needs to be based on when they are going to buy, not whether you have qualified or proposed them. Also, if you focus on fewer, better-qualified accounts, your results will be much greater.

Time Management
Ask yourself “Is what I am doing now clearly the best use of my time?” First, understand the difference between what is urgent and what is important. To most, the urgent is what must be done right now and what is important takes the majority of time. However, the urgent issues in life often take the most time and take over most of our time. It is vital to understand that spending time doing things that are strategic is much more important than simply accomplishing tasks. Recognize that urgent tasks should not always be the first priority. The best way to set priorities is to do it on a daily basis. Develop a clear agenda. Every morning write down the five most important things that need to be accomplished that day.

Territory Management
You can have the greatest territory management program in the world but without support and follow through it is destined to fail. As an individual sales person, your opportunity for success is much greater if you can control and support your territory. If you have more tan twenty prospects in your funnel, you will want to work on dividing your territory geographically. The best way to do it is to divide it into four sections. The more you know about your territory the greater the odds you will succeed. Don’t give up on your territory. Understand and appreciate its value to you and your success.