Time Management - An Essential Principle For Sales Success

Life, its all about time. Here are some truths about time that you might not have considered lately: There is never enough time. You can’t save time. You can’t stop, freeze, delay, slow it down, speed it up, or alter time in any way. You can’t make time. Time is money. The truth of the matter is this – there is only one thing in the entire world that you can do with time and that is to manage it. Learn to do it well.

For some people, time is too short. For others it moves too quickly. There are those who claim time just drags on day after day. I’ve heard some people complain that there is never enough time and we all know people who have too much time on their hands. I’ve made an interesting observation over the years. Successful people always have just enough time, but unsuccessful people never have enough time.

Time is a continuum. It exists and moves forward without the influence of man. We have absolutely no control over time; to quote the words of the song, Old Man River, “it just keeps moving along”. We talk about time in terms of time zones, time frames, time outs, good times, bad times, time to arrive and time to leave. Some familiar times are: time to get up, time to go to bed, time to go to work, time to eat, summer time, spring time, etc. Even the Bible talks about time in Ecclesiastes:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Successful people in all walks of life have learned how to manage their time. To be successful in the world of selling, you too, must learn how to manage your time. For those salespeople who don’t effectively manage their time, time will manage them. Time has no idea what you want to do with your time, so when you let time manage you, the results will be a disaster. Here are a few simple rules for managing your time.

1. Decide what you want to accomplish with your time.
2. Plan a specific time to do those things you have decided to accomplish.
3. Determine before you begin, how much time you are going to spend on each thing you have planned to accomplish with your time.
4. There will always be enough time if you manage it wisely and never enough time if you squander it.
5. Time doesn’t care what you do with it or how you use it. You can use it for value or waste.
6. Time is continually moving and if you don’t move with it will pass you by. Remember, time continues to move even when you don’t.
7. With time, there is no “time out.” For every second of your life, it is “time in.”
8. No one knows how much time they have until their time has come to an end. For those who use their time wisely, all the time they have is enough. For those who waste their time, their time is too short.
9. For those who live life successfully, by any definition, it can be said that they effectively managed their time.
10. In the entire world, there has never been, and never will be, a successful salesperson who didn’t effectively manage their time.

Successful salespeople manage their time consistently and daily. They have calculated the value of their time in both dollars as well as social value. Think of time as money or social activity falling from the sky. You can catch as much or as little as you chose. It is up to you. What are you willing to do with your time. Are you willing to learn and apply correct principles of management to get the most out of your time or will you just let it pass you by?