Carving Out the Time to Sell - Short Attention Span Sales Tip

When I asked people my favorite question, “Why aren’t you selling more?” one of the top three answers that comes back is, “I simply don’t have enough time in the day.” Salespeople tell me that something else comes up or they get interrupted and they never seem to get to their prospecting, day after day.

Some of this falls under the category of excuses that salespeople make for not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but I get it. Stuff happens and things come up and it’s human nature for us to gravitate towards the things that we want to do rather than the things that we should be doing.

This tip is about preparation and time management.

In my life, anything that I really, really want to do — be it business or personal — I have to do first. Whether it’s exercise or selling or writing a proposal or making these sales tips, I’m just as bad at procrastinating as the next guy. So, here’s my thinking for you:

Block off time between 8:30 a.m. and either 9:30 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. and plan to use that time to sell. Change your outgoing voicemail message to’s something like, “you have reached the phone of Bill Farquharson. Today is Monday, June 24. I will be tied up until 10 a.m. If you need me immediately, press zero and have me paged. Otherwise, I will call you back at 10.” Believe me, the only people who will interrupt you are your children! And/or, as suggested in a recent blog, stick a note on your desk that reads, “Can it wait until 10?” That will ward off interruptions from your co-workers.

I suggest that you try this for one week. As you’ve heard me say before, any major change that I want to make in my life, I do it for one week first. Five consecutive days. You can commit to doing just about anything for one week, right? So pick a week, set aside time first thing in the day, fill the day before it with activities, and then as Nike suggests, just do it!

Want more?

Click on the video above or click here to watch the video. 

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Bill Farquharson can be reached at (781) 934-7036 or bfarquharson@idealliance.org