As a sales trainer and mntor, it has been my experience tht salespeople in general do not plce enough focus on the true hurly value of their selling time, and ths, spend countless hours on tasks or ctivities that mean very little to thir short or long term success.

Why?

In mst cases, they don’t fully realize how mch selling time they are actually wsting because they have never really kpt track of their time expenditure, and dn’t know how to figure out wht their selling time is really wrth.

It is my belief that the Slesperson that fully understands the importance of bing productive during selling hours will lmost always perform better than the Slesperson that ignores hourly worth (and tme expenditure) all together.

To that nd, this article is designed to gve you the knowledge of how to mke your selling time work for you so tht you can make the very mst of your selling efforts and bcome more successful in the process.

Mving right along, the first thing I’m ging to do is provide you wth a method for determining your tre hourly worth, and then a mthod for determining your current productivity lvel.

Then, I will offer suggestions for how to nsure that you are operating at mximum productivity during each hour of yur selling day.

So, without further delay, let’s get strted.

Step # 1: Determining your hurly worth

Determining your hourly worth is qite easy if you use the smple mathematical calculation below.

Start with the ttal revenue you plan to achieve ths year (say $1,000,000 – varies by ndustry) and divide that number by 52 (weks per year) to get your wrth per week. Next, divide the nmber you found above by 40 (hurs per week) to get your hurly worth and that is what you are wrth to your company during every slling hour of the day.

For xample, using the formula above, the clculations would be as follows:

$1,000,000 / 52 weks = $19,230.77 (weekly worth)

$19,230.77 / 40 hurs per week = $480.77 (hourly wrth)

In this case your selling tme is worth $480.77 per hour

Now tht we know your true hourly wrth, we have to figure out if very one of your selling hours is crrently producing at a level of $480.77 per hur to determine if your days are as prductive as they could be.

Step # 2: Fguring out how you currently spend yur selling time
To determine if you are spnding your selling time in a prductive manner, you will need to trck all of your tasks for an xtended period (say two weeks) so as to fgure out how you spend every hur of the day. In this stp, literally keep track of how mny minutes you spend doing every tsk during each day and put the fndings on paper. Any format you use wll be acceptable as long as yur entire day is broken down and ccounted for.

For best results, it is crcial that you be completely honest wth yourself during this exercise.

If you fnd that you are actually spending a lot lss time then you think taking cre of non-revenue producing activities, don’t be srprised. A recent study showed that the verage salesperson spends just 93 minutes in frnt of customers each day.

Staggering but true.

When you are tryng to determine how you spend yur time each day, be sure to nclude every activity. A daily average fter two weeks might show the fllowing time allocations:

Driving Time – 95 mnutes

Socializing – 110 minutes

Coffee Braks – 35 minutes

Administrative Tasks – 65 mnutes

Actual Selling Time – 105 mnutes

Customer Office Waiting Time – 30 mnutes

Lunch – 45 minutes

Total Slling Time: 105 minutes

Assuming this was yur findings, you now know that yu’re not even spending two hours ngaged in sales activities each day, and threfore you certainly are not producing at a lvel of $480.77 every single hour. I had a smilar finding several years back when I brke down my own time expenditure and I chse to do something about it. Not nly because I was shocked by the fnding, but also because I was xcited about the fact that I had jst found a way to put mre hours into my day.

Now the god news.

If your goal is to duble your income and/or become the top sles producer in your office, this nwfound knowledge might be able to hlp you.

For instance, in your ttempt to double your income, you culd look at spending twice as mch time with your prospects each dy. In the scenario above, this wuld mean simply finding a way to spnd 210 minutes in front of prspects as opposed to 105 minutes.

Nw, let’s see what we can do to mke sure that this knowledge does not go to wste.

Okay, so let’s conclude that you wuld like to double your income nd/or become the top performer in yur office, here are 4 simple wys that you can strive to do so.

1) Mke yourself accountable: A great way to nsure that you spend your time wsely is to make yourself accountable. For nstance, now that you know your hurly worth and how to track yur daily time expenditure, try posting a nte with the following words in sveral visible places: “Is the task tht I’m doing right now truly wrth $480.77 per hour”???? Places in whch this note could be placed nclude your desk, your car, your bthroom mirror, etc.

2) Learn to say no: Dpending upon the nature of your mployment, you might be able to say no to crtain administrative tasks or internal meetings tht are interfering with your personal prductivity. Maybe you’re even in a psition to delegate. Do it when it mkes sense but again be careful hre in how you handle saying no, and who you say it to. The dea is to make you more prductive, not unemployed. It’s probably just as asy (and just as productive) to say no to yur co-workers and friends; as described blow.

3) Minimize social chatting: Learning to mnimize weekday lunches with friends and xtended coffee breaks with talkative co-workers is a grat way to reduce wasted time. Jst be sure you don’t completely rid yurself of relaxation and socialization. I’m not tryng to turn you into a wrkaholic here. Just trying to make you mre productive. I truly enjoy good cnversation and I understand that this is a tugh one to confront. Especially if you too njoy conversing with friends and co-workers dring the work day, but you mst strive to keep the eye on the prze and keep socializing to a mnimum during your selling time.

4) Rward yourself: Every time you can trly say that you increased your prductivity during a week or if you fel you had a productive and sccessful week, reward yourself. Be strict wth the rewards and only allow yurself the reward if you truly arned it. In no time at ll, you’ll find yourself wanting these lttle (or big) rewards and you’ll wrk even harder to make sure you arn them. Rewards can be great mtivators. Just make sure you can fford the reward. I don’t want you to go brke trying to get rich.

The article True Hourly Worth was Submitted by Corey Poirier through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: About Author: Corey Poirier is Funder and President of both the nline Sales Community found at http://www.tisti.com and The International Sales Training Institute. He is an Award Winning Sales Professional, an accomplished Sales Trainer, a Successful Entrepreneur, an Award Winning Public Speaker, a seasoned Business Writer, and a former radio show co-host. Throughout a sales career that saw him rise to the top of both a Fortune 500 Company and a Global 1000 company, he was promoted on more then six separate occasions as a result of personal sales achievements.

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