The fact is, time is your biggest enemy in sales or, for that matter, any other vocation. While it is finite, it’s not that we don’t have the time necessary to do the job. The problem is that our time is either being wasted or it is being sucked away by the wrong tasks and focuses.
It’s not all of our fault. We come from the factory pre-programmed to not necessarily meet these challenges very well. The good news is that we can rewire ourselves to correct these manufacturing defects. With “More sales | Less Time – Surprisingly Simple Strategies for Today’s Crazy-Busy Sellers”, Jill Konrath goes extensively into how this can be done. To say that she has done her research is an understatement.
If things weren’t bad enough, as Jill puts it … “We live in the age of distraction”. Much of this has been driven by technology tools along with their binging and flashing notifications, our multiple open tabs, and anything else that might compete for our immediate attention. I call it shiny bauble syndrome.[Tweet “Jill Konrath shares her secrets on how to make more sales in less time!”]
This book was born out of Jill’s personal need to take control of her own time and to increase her efficiencies. It is a story of Jill’s self-evaluation, attempts at correction and improvement, and of her successes and failures (requiring more adjustments) along the way. The book is …
- Part science of the brain and psychological studies
- Part advice from productivity experts and authors
- Part harnessing technology apps to avoid technology distractions
- Reprogramming how we address these challenges for maximum effectiveness
I appreciated the way that Jill took me step-by-step through her process and I felt very comforted by the fact that even a selling superstar feels the same pain that the rest of us do. I also picked up some great tips for some apps (the time-saving not time-sucking kind) to investigate!
Whereas the first three quarters of the book is devoted to taming the time and focus beast, the Part 6, “Accelerate Sales”, delves into how to use these newly recovered resources in order to truly up your selling game. In this section, Jill addresses …
- Triggers – How to identify and leverage customer events that might very well create opportunities for you!
- Developing time-saving systems – Create and deploy templates (and other things) to really cut down on repetitive work tasks.
- Cleaning up your pipeline – Move deals forward or move them out. Your pipeline is not supposed to be a wish list.
- How to accelerate your own development through careful self-evaluation and coaching.
- Making customer decisions simpler – Help them to arrive at a decision!
- Get bigger sales – Are you setting your client size objective too low?
In the appendix, you will find how to lead a highly productive sales team, admonishments and resources for continued learning, and a list of really great books that you will no doubt wish to investigate!
“More Sales | Less Time” is, despite its great detail and complexities, an easy read. Each section comes with a recap (including a PDF download), chapters include goals and an exercise for you to implement on your own, and it is also chocked full of references to additional resources such as other great reads on the subject matter.
So, if you are really serious about making more sales in less time, I would encourage you to first buy the book and then make a strong commitment to yourself to follow through with Jill’s suggested steps. They will take quite a bit of effort on your part, and you will fail forward during the process but, the rewards will be worth it and Jill has already done much of the heavy lifting for you!
Craig M. Jamieson
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