With kids returning to school either looming or already an issue, it’s time to talk about full-time sales and full-time parenting.
To accomplish both effectively requires preparation, discipline, organization, time management, and commitment.
Let’s start with commitment.
I’m not going to tell you what to do or how to approach parenting, but… I am going to share my opinion. Your commitment to kids and family must come first. Your first goal is to raise kind and caring children. Sales is secondary.
Just so we are clear.
Woody Allen once said, 80% of success is just showing up. I agree, but I also believe 80% of success as a parent is being present (read: not on your phone, not working, and completely available).
How do you get there?
Well, that’s where preparation, discipline, organization, and time management come in.
Let’s say your child gets on the bus at 8 and off at 3. Given commuting time, you have just 6 hours a day to get it done. Can you find sales success in just 6 hours? Heck, yeah! Reps waste a spectacular amount of time every day. You just need a plan:
First, make sure you are doing the right activities.
That means identifying those parts of your job that make you and your company the most money. For example, mine is customer contact. When I am on the phone with clients, sales are made, business is retained, and The Sales Vault grows. So, it makes me try to maximize that task at the expense of everything else, if necessary.
Next, it’s critical to stay organized.
Make sure you are answering the question, “What’s the best use of my time right now?” correctly. This is the hard part since we often gravitate towards our want-to’s instead of our have-to’s.
Finally, set a quitting time.
In our example, it might be 2:30pm. Add an alarm to your phone. An early drop-dead time like this might seem limiting but it’s actually just the opposite. What happens is, you’ll look at your watch, calculate how much time you have left before 2:30, and then find the task that needs doing the most. You will skip over the non-essential tasks and get right to the top priorities.
Of course, I am simplifying a lot here. But that is exactly what it will take to sell and parent successfully in the same day.
Keep it simple. Stay organized. Apply discipline.
And always, always, always put your family first.
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It’s ideas like this that make up The Sales Vault. Visit SalesVault.pro or call Bill Farquharson at 781-934-7036.
