Success As A Salesman Is A Journey

Success as a salesman is a journey, one that should be enjoyed. It comes from adherence to certain foundational activities required each day. Failing to execute on these activities will result in lost opportunities and eventual failure. Failure takes time, it does not happen on the day we put things off but rather is a future result; if we felt consequences at the end of each day for procrastinating; the attention to these necessities would change. But there is no daily penalty; but to succeed we must exhibit a certain amount of discipline if we expect to realize our desired future.

1. Growth
2. Administration
3. Territory Management

Growth is the purpose of this blog, but before getting deep into growth. We will take a quick look at all three disciplines:

Growth is the part of the salesman job that brings the revenue into the company. Growth is critical to any business, without continued growth; the company will fail.

To have a steady business income you need a disciplined approach to prospecting - daily. The connecting that comes from the prospecting leads to the appointments that identify needs, the follow-up you do after the appointment result in closings and generating income. A salesman can be less than great administrator and territory manager and still be reasonably successful – but unless a salesman masters growth - he will fail!

Administration – the activities necessary to protect growth:

1. Creating a daily to do list.
2. Nurturing and keeping the database up-to-date
3. Processing sales orders with service delivery in mind
4. Communicating with prospects and clients
5. Processing expenses

These activities done well will turn prospect in the clients and eventually result in follow-up orders. Administration can take from one to two hours daily. When done right. So plan to do it right.

Territory Management

This is the activity that is most neglected, however, it is another key to long-term success, it is the process that reduces the highs and lows so many salespeople experience. The ability to steadily increase income over the long term lies in how well you execute here. Our territory represents our own business; this is where our satisfaction comes from and the growth that sparks our long-term success. The time spent planning, strategizing, studying the competition and in continuous learning is how we become stewards of our territory. Thinking like an owner comes from working on the business not just in it; we are not just employees collecting a check – we are the ones who make it possible to meet payroll. What was our performance look like in six months if we spent time each day planning our territory activities, devoted the appropriate amount of time to growth and set aside blocks of time to do our administrative work.

Starting today set time blocks for these activities, track your success for 30 days and measure the impact. Do not become distracted or procrastinate on necessary activities reach for success by balancing every day around these three activities.