Imagine you are at work. A person says they are going to give you $86,400 to spend as you wish. The only catch, you have to spend all of it in the next 24 hours, and on at least 3 different items. How would you divide the money? What would you buy? How do you decide? Go on.. ..write down your list.

Now look at your list. Did you have ‘throw money down the drain’ on your   list? Why not?

Every single day, we get a very   precious gift of 86,400 units – it’s not money, what is it? (seconds)

So, how do we plan our day and make sure we get the high priority   things completed? How many of us ‘waste’ some of these precious seconds?

 Every single day as sales people we decide how to spend the 28,800 (+ or-)   seconds that we have allocated to “work”.   Some of the biggest time  wasting traps I see sales people falling into include:  Doing  admin and client follow up during quality sales calling time

1.   Driving   to see a customer, then driving to the next passing other customers on the   way
2.   Scheduling  meetings in peak traffic flow times
3.   Chasing  up low potential accounts when we could spend the time on our platinum or gold opportunities
4.   Letting   emails interrupt  you from focusing on other tasks
5.   Phoning   clients and going to voice mail,  at a  time when the chance of them answering is low
6.   Writing   proposals for opportunities that have not been well qualified or have a low   chance of success
7.   Trying   to locate misplaced files or documents
8.   Turning   up to a call and not having a clear objective in mind, so missing potential   opportunities
9. 10.   Turning up to a call and not having all the sales materials we need,   so having to follow up latter
10.   Assuming that all customer   needs are urgent and re organising you day to deliver on time.   Remember to ask and don’t be afraid to push   back a little.

All of us fall into these traps from time to time. If you want to spend   your time more effectively, to have “more” time, look at how you are spending   your time and what you could change. In an earlier life, I reduced my   proposal writing time from 12 % to 5% of my time with no reduction in success   simply by allocating a realistic time frame to each proposal and adhering to   it.

What is one thing you could change in your work habits that would make   you more effective?