Do You Really Have Time to Sell?
As the owner of a company, you may have considered whether or not you really have time to sell and build your business. Maybe you should just hire a Sales Director to manage a sales team so you can just “do your thing”. You may find that this would be a good solution depending on your situation. However, before you make that leap you must consider a few things.
Being Your Own Brand Makes it Hard to Find Time to Sell
Until you have grown to a medium sized company, most people will know your company through association to you. You had time to sell in the beginning. You really are a large part of your brand. Handing over the reins of the company sales to someone no one knows can be risky. It takes years to develop sales people. It also takes money to hire a worthwhile Sales Director.
So until that day comes, let’s see if you can carve out a little time in your own schedule for focused sales.
Here is the typical schedule for a small business owner. See if it sounds familiar.
5:00 AM: You are up because you need to “get some things done” so you can get out there and sell. Checking messages, sending email, organizing your calendar.
6:00 AM: Breakfast and coffee and shower.
7:00 AM: Arrive at work. Sales people already there having coffee and discussing the high maintenance prospects they are trying to sell to. This works, that works, try that.
8:00 AM: Meetings, phone calls, administrative duties, proposals, lunch, networking meeting, coffee, emails, calls, meetings.
5:00 PM: Where did today go?
Where to Find Time to Sell
Here is the truth. If you do not block out large chunks of time to work on vital priorities, you have promoted yourself to the most expensive hourly employee in the company. There are only two ways to increase your time. Sleep less (is that even possible?) and delegate. Where do we find more time to sell?
What are the tasks you do on a daily basis that someone else with a little training could manage for you? Here are a few that are common to all of us.
Scheduling meetings
Responding to emails
Sorting mail
Going to the bank
Answering the phone
Accounts receivable
Accounts payable
Bookkeeping
Payroll
Hiring/Termination
Execution of marketing
We’re just getting started here. We could also include tasks at home like cooking, house cleaning, and gardening.
Buy it Back
Delegating is buying your time back. You are literally paying someone to do something so you don’t have to. Once your time is free, you can choose to fill it with something else, or do nothing. But you now have that time back to be more effective at your vital priorities.
Outsourcing is a form of delegation. Managing a sales team takes enormous amounts of time, effort, training, money, and knowledge. Keeping your customer database up to date can feel like a full time job. And who knows if you’re even doing it right? Automated emails take time to create based on your marketing objectives. Who hasn’t made errors on a payroll? It takes longer to do it since we aren’t experts and sometimes we end up doing it all over! And don’t get me started on bookkeeping.
How Do I Know What to Delegate or Outsource?
Make a full list of tasks that you do on a regular basis that do not directly relate to increasing sales. Heads up, it will be a big list. Divide the list into job categories.There is a plethora of choices regarding outsourcing and delegating. Hire the administrative assistant, bookkeeper, marketing assistant, gardener, or whatever you need to do those tasks. You will be amazed at how much time you have.
However, you are not done. Now is the time to block out 90 minute jam sessions where you work uninterrupted on business development, projects, planning, and strategy. By the way, “uninterrupted”, means no cell phone, no email, no interruptions. None. You can spend your 5:00 AM time refining your vital priority lists that will get worked on during your jam sessions.
What about sales? That is where Chameleon Group comes in. We will manage your contact lists, inbound and outbound calls, automated emails, and much more. We will even customize sales teams and activities to meet your specialized needs. And you will get your life back.
Let’s make 2018 the year you actually get something done! Call us so we can help.
- Phone: 800.773.9182
- Email: sales@chameleonsales.com