today is just a finite fraction in the infinity of time

Think about it!

  • Monday morning, the 20th of July.  One day among 365.  202 down with 164 to go.
  • Just one day in a decade or in 100 years or in millennia since Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
  • Time is always non-stop and always represented by change.
  • The concept of time is self-evident, but we rarely think about the fundamental nature of time...

Time out...until of course, we run out of time!.

What this pandemic is teaching us is the fragility of time.  We see it, we sense it, and now we always live it in both our personal and work lives. We live in an ever-expanding bubble of time listening to the daily chants of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and, as a result, we're much more aware of time now than we were six months ago. We anticipate it and we watch it carefully in our Zoom calls.  More than ever, we constantly try to balance our own time with a myriad of new demands that we never ever considered before like "should we send our kids back to school?" and "what are the safest hours to go to Market Basket?"


Jack, enough already, I need some good news on a monday!

Working onlineThe very good news is that we have more time available in our ability to work, teach and learn from our home office whether that office is at the kitchen table, the tent in the backyard or in the cleared-out space next to the furnace in the cellar.  Most of us have eliminated hours of each day from the stress, the cost and the mindlessness of commuting.  I used to pride myself about my ability to multitask and to take scheduled calls from clients and students every 15 minutes using the 3 hours of daily commuting time back and forth from the NH beach to the Boston office and the Tufts campus.  In reality, that time was definitely not that productive!  It was highly stressful and certainly not that safe trying to solve real issues with real people while taking notes and trying to balance an early morning Dunkin'. 

The reality of today is that we simply have much more available time in a still-new virtual world, and, even though we are trying hard to figure out how "to return to work", the double reality is that we are never going back to a time labeled "before".    

  • Maybe our time will be spent continuing to work totally from home in a much more connected world with more and more enhanced AI technologies that are rapidly becoming available. 
  • Maybe our work time will be adapting to a "normal" week of three days in the office and two working virtually, but whatever shape our time will take, we now have the ability to become much more efficient and effective in our work lives...especially as sales and marketing people...by working virtually most of the time.  
  • Definitely our time as sales and marketing professionals spent in customer and prospect travel, at mind-numbing trade shows, or "just stopping by since I'm going to be in the area", can be made much more efficient, and, more importantly, made much more effective for our new prospects or our existing customers.  

Just some Sales factoids we've gathered over the years: 

  • An average "A-" to "A+" salesperson works 11 hours a day/5-day weeks. Many work more!
  • 52 weeks / 5 days / 11 hours of work = 2,860 available hours to sell a year
  • -15% unproductive time ("how was the weekend?", pick up dry cleaning & so on)=429 hours
  • -5% sick time = 143 hours
  • -10 days of vacation (top producers actually take 15) = 110 hours
  • -11 days of holidays (in reality, long weekends equal 15) = 121 hours
  • = 2,057 hours available to sell...assuming that that person were 100% productive 
  • - 20% lost in meetings, travel time = 1645 available to sell...assuming 100% productivity
  • - 5 hours / 45 weeks (Forrester) for salespeople trying to find and redo marketing materials=225
  • 1,420 hours available to sell... assuming 100% productivity 

Bottom line

time to sellThere then exists approximately 1,400 hours a year to actually sell assuming that (1) the salesperson is 100% productive...which, of course is impossible, and (2) that the company in general is doing reasonably well, and most importantly that the management culture is consistently positive and moving forward. 

Throw departmental, finger-pointing silos or a politically charged management culture into the mix, and productivity drops by 25%. Yes, 25% spent in worthless political infighting!   

 

  • But let's assume, a good culture and 90% productivity at 1,400 hours available =1,260 hours to sell
  • At the more rational 80% productivity number for an "A" player, we have 1,120 hours available.
  • Bottom line: we went from 2,860 hours to 1,100 in the blink of an eye, just by standing still.

But of course, as "A"-level players, as sales warriors, as women and men who read this blog and who always want to win and be first not by ourselves, but with our team, we are not limiting ourselves to 60 hours a week and certainly not to five days often cramming in some time early morning time on Saturdays and Sunday. 

80 hours consistently?  No, only with a few of our CEOs.  70 hours?  We see it all the time!

How do you beat time?

  1. You simply do not without a definitive plan!  With you, or without you... time marches on!
  2. The concept of "trying harder" to balance work and personal time is just that...a concept!
  3. By employing processes, tools, technology & training, into Sales & Marketing, you win!
  • You employ and measure formal processes and tools consistently to well-defined customer personas.
  • You focus on the value you and your company will deliver to those personas and their companies. 
  • You understand that delivering & measuring Value Propositions is a science and not an art.
  • You recognize and are sincerely empathetic to the issues and pressures that the pandemic presents.

MANAGING SALES IN A COVID WORLD:  AUGUST 24TH-25TH & bonus on the 26th 

Sales Boot CampIt's for this reason that we're scheduling our next online Sales Management Seminar Series at the end of August, so that we can arm our sales leaders with impactful battle plans and proven sales tactics that will enable their salespeople to achieve success during the unknowns of the last four months of 2020:

For two mornings of August 24th & 25th, we're holding our Sales Management Boot Camp online. 

The next day, August 26th, we're available to work one-on-one with team members.  30 minutes or an hour or two, it's up to you. 

 

  •  
  • Focused on sales management for CEOs, presidents and sales managers at all levels
  • We're totally focused on tactics to insure a successful September & Q4.
  • Focus will be specific tactics within the categories of process, tools, technologies, & people
  • Skills training, process-building, lead gen, forecasting, closing, and managing & hiring in 2020.
  • Proven sales management experts:  Jack & George plus...
  • James Stone, Director, Mid Market Sales, Hubspot & Colleen Honan, CSO, Building Engines
  • Mike Schumann, VP Sales, SYRG, & John Routhier, CSO, Skill Survey, just signed up. 
  • We will specifically customize our content around the specific needs of our attendee team.  Now's the time to sign up and let us know where you want us to tactically focus. 

Different from big numbers of people and formulaic programs, our boot camps are focused at 20ish managers so that there is plenty of opportunity for customization and active engagement through the sessions.  

Click here for more information, and then my suggestion would be to connect with me directly at jack@derbymanagement.com, and we can set up a call to answer questions.  

HAVE A GREAT DAY SELLING (VIRTUALLY) TODAY Jack and Tufts Entrepreneurship Center -1

If at any time, you have a need for a confidential sounding board in business planning or for Sales or Marketing , just connect with me at any time.  Text or email me, and I will quickly set up a call. 

I'm a pretty good listener.  Obviously, no cost for a call or two; just an opportunity to listen intently and make a few recommendations based on decades of experience.

Be safe and be positive and have a good week! 

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If you want to learn more, ask questions or attend our upcoming Sales Management Seminar Series give me a call or text at 617-504-4222 or email me at jack@derbymanagement.com 

 

 

Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, sales coach, sales management coach, sales enablement, marketing effectiveness, how to close sales, Sales Hiring & Onboarding, how to write a sales plan, writing sales plans, sales readiness