No matter what you have, or what you want it will take resources to get that.  The resources required to do most anything are time, talents, treasure, and manpower.  Of these time is the great equalizer.

All of us are either born with, or have developed varying degrees of different talents.

We have different amounts of treasure.  The treasure you have is either in a liquid (usable) state or it’s tied up and not immediately available for use but can be leveraged to acquire usable treasure.

Perhaps you provide all the manpower for your efforts, you outsource work, or your hire manpower.  That manpower provides varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency.  You may have more manpower than needed or too little.

I say time is the great equalizer because we all have the same amount of time.  No one gets more time, or has less time than anyone else.  It’s the way you use your time that makes all the difference.  Most business owners and sales people think they never have enough time.  The reality is everyone has enough time to do the important things when they use their time wisely.

The way you use your time is so important I wrote The Race To Success  When you can master the way you use your time you can master the way you achieve anything you want.

The way you use your time plays a critical role in the “Strategic Sales Master Plan” we’ve been working on.  Your vision, your mission, your goals are all time bound. Would you agree when it comes to time parameters there’s both a start time and an end time?

Which time parameter is more important, the time you finish or the time you start?

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Most people will answer the time you finish is the most important time parameter.  I disagree.

How many times have you set a goal to do something by a specific time, yet that time came and went but the goal was not accomplished?  Here’s what happens when you focus on the end time rather than the start time.

At first that time seems far off.  Because the end time isn’t eminent it’s easy to think, “I’ll get started on that later.”  It’s easy to keep putting the actions you need to take off.  Then you reach a point in time where you decide there’s no way you can ever take the actions you need to take to finish the goal by the stated end time.  At that point you give up… and decide you won’t even start.

That’s why the most important deadline for any and all sales goals is the date you will start taking the action or actions you need to take.  You can’t finish anything until you start, so why focus on the end when you can’t get there from where you are now.  Thinking about everything you have to do to accomplish a goal can feel draining.  When you just focus on taking one action (starting) anyone can do just one little thing.  It doesn’t feel like a big deal.  Plus once you start something it’s far easier to maintain the motivation to keep going until it’s done than it is to dredge up the motivation to start in the first place.

Deadline for Starting

Now that you have your 3 most important goals identified from the previous post take those goals out and DECIDE what date you will start taking action for each goal.  Get those actions on your To Do List (aka action list) and starting checking those actions off as done by starting with one action at a time on a specific date.

Today seems like a good START date to begin taking the actions you need to get the things you want.

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker

Sales success is a matter of the actions you take.  You can’t hope your way to success.  You can’t dream your way to success.  You CAN get success one action at a time.

Some sales people are so busy doing things they don’t have time to take the actions required to sell.  Time becomes a ready excusable excuse.  Yet excuses won’t get you sales success.

That leaves you with an important decision.  You can decide to continue doing exactly what you’re doing now.  Or you can decide to focus your time on the actions that produce sales results.

The choice is always yours and yours alone.  No one can MAKE you do anything.  You can continue to fool yourself and convince yourself that you are taking the most important actions you can take to increase your sales.

Of course, the only one fooled is YOU.

If you had the sales success you want now what actions do you believe you’d need to take to get that success?

How could you work those actions into your day every day?

Would it be worth giving up what you’re doing now to take the actions that produce the sales results you want?

I guess you know what to do then…

I also recommend you register to join me in this free event to discover how to sell more in less time (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

1. Cost less to acquire
2. Greater net client value
3. No price shoppers
4. Quicker conversion
5. Consistent low cost growth

Join me for this free event where I show you how to sell more in less time (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

5 Reasons Referrals Make Your Business Recession Proof (video link)

5 Reasons Referrals Make Your Business Recession Proof (audio link)

Your potential clients are scared right now.  They don’t know where to turn for help.  This is where you come in, of course.

Close the gap by talking about what they want and need rather than the products you sell.

Show them what to look for, what to look out for, what to avoid, etc.  Give them an action to take.

Automate what happens once they take that action so it gets done consistently and predictably.

Join me for this free event where I show you how to sell more in less time (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

There’s Never been a Better Time to Sell Insurance (video link)

There’s Never been a Better Time to Sell Insurance (audio link)

photo credit: OakleyOriginals

Remember when you wished for fun things like toys and vacations and such?  Now it may seem like the one thing you wish for each day throughout the day is…time.  As you constantly remind yourself you have to hurry up.

I know this will shock you BUT right now you’re chosing not to have enough time.  It isn’t a conscious choice.  Instead you choose never to have enough time by not chosing to decide how you’ll invest your time.

You have no more nor no less time than anyone else.  Have you noticed how the top producers seem to have time to enjoy life?  Are you thinking when you get there you’ll have time too?

Unless you change the way you use your time now you won’t have any more time  later than you do now.  You won’t flip a switch and instantly have all the free time you want.  You won’t, that is unless you…

Get serious about how you use your time now.  Right now huge chunks of time are slipping through your fingers.  You don’t know where they go.  You don’t know what you did during those chunks of time.

One of the first things you can do to get more time is discover exactly how you’re investing your time now.

Only after you’re armed with this knowledge can you make wise decisions about how you’ll invest your time from now on.

Join me for this free event (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success” as I show you how to get more time.  You must register to attend.

You started the year with big plans.  The first quarter is nearing an end.  How are you doing?

Less than 60% of all sales people hit their targets.  The sales game has changed and it’s time to change your game by revamping what you’re selling to better fit what your clients want now.

Sales Resolution (video link)

Sales Resolution (audio link)

Join me for this free event where I show you how to hit your targets in less time (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

photo credit: nd.strupler

Sometimes it can feel like you’re in a race to sell more.  You think you just need to do more to sell more.  You think if you make more calls, and hold more appointments your sales will go up.

The problem with this approach is that eventually you reach the point when you just can’t do more.  There aren’t enough hours in the day to do more.  You have every second of every hour of every day tied up and there’s no where to go to get more time.

At that point you realize doing more isn’t the answer.  The answer is doing less more effectively than you are now.  There are two components to this solution.

First, you have to produce greater results from your actions.  Second, you have to automate as much of the marketing and sales process as you possibly can.  Then, and only then, can you do more in less time with better results.

To produce greater results from your current actions you first have to know what actions you consistently take.  Then you have to know the results those actions produce.  At that point you can focus on the actions that produce results and challenge yourself to improve your actions to improve your results.

You’d be surprised how much of what you do now could be automated if you just thought about it.  When you automate things you know they’ll happen, you know they’ll happen consistently, and you can track your outcomes.  Just like the actions you take by moving your own hands and feet you can improve the outcomes of your automated actions so it takes even less work on your part.

Join me as I show you how to get more time than you have now in this free event (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

Referrals are a quick and easy way to build and maintain a successful business.  The best way to get referrals is to develop a system or process to produce them.  Whenever possible automate your system.

That way it will get done and it will get done consistently.  Then you can track your results and focus on what works.

Join me for this free event where I show you how to get more time (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend

Sales Referral Success (video link)

Sales Referral Success (audio link)

photo credit: Blyzz

The phrase “time management” is a pet peeve of mine.  You can’t manage time because time isn’t a process.  You can only manage the way you use the time you have.

Managing the way you use your time is HUGE.  The way you use your time is so important because it’s key to both your effectiveness and your productivity.  It doesn’t make sense to think you can do more when you can’t get done what you think you need to get done now.

That means you have to use your time more effectively to produce results so you have more time to use as you like.  Even if you think you use your time well you could probably use it better.  The reason I suggest this is because most people don’t have the data to either verify they use their time well or that they don’t.

Identify the actions you take that produce 80% of your sales results.  How much time are you investing in those actions?  Commit to investing at least 40% of your time on those actions and those actions only.

In most cases 20% of your actions produce 80% of your results.  So..stop doing the actions that only produce 20% of your results.  Use the time you free up to do those things that produce your results even better.  Better yet automate those actions so you can track them, measure them, and consistently reproduce them.

Join me for this free event where I’ll show you how to get more time and increase your sales (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.

Three main referrals sources: existing clients, centers of influence, complimentary businesses.

Complimentary businesses are the best source of rock solid referrals in large numbers.

Where Do You Get Sales Referrals? (video link)

Where Do You Get Sales Referrals? (audio link)

Join me for this free event (click here to register –> “Time! The Key to Your Sales Success”  You must register to attend.