We’ve got 24 hours to work with…nothing more, nothing less.

You can get more done by 8 am if you’ll do a few things no one else will do.

I can’t remember who did the time study on CEOs in the U.S. I believe the finding was the average CEO achieved about 20 minutes productive time a day.

20 minutes!

How much of your time is spent on productive things in one day?

Let me define “productive” time for the pre-need seller.

Prospecting and Presenting is productive time.

Anything else done is un-productive.

The other day I turned in a bunch of business and spent at least an hour working on all of the paperwork.

Guess what. I consider that time un-productive.

The productive time was spent in front of my Prospects and getting the sale.

The question for you; how much time are you spending on productive time?

If you were to make one presentation per day what would happen if you were to make two presentations a day?

Two presentations would equal a doubling of your productive time.

If you spend one hour a day prospecting what would happen if you doubled it?

Well, here’s today’s tip:

Double the time you spend
Prospecting and Presenting
and you’ll increase your
sales a bunch!

It’s that simple

If you do nothing else just a little more time focused on productivity will increase your sales and trips to the bank. 

It’s that simple.

Now, all you have to do is tweak your schedule accordingly to double your sales in the next six months.

Happy Selling!

David…

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The reply said…..”I hope this works…”

There was a movie, in the 90s, called “A league of there own”.  In the movie Tom Hanks sees a girl begin to cry and yells, “there’s no crying in baseball!”

Guess what.  There’s no “hope” strategies in sales.

It isn’t, “I hope this works.”

When it comes to sales you gotta get that thinking out of your head.

When I attempt different selling strategies I’m doing nothing more than TESTING.  I’m not hoping, I’m testing because if it doesn’t work I’ll head back to my Pre-Need Laboratory and begin further experiments.

The light bulb was not invented because of hope.  It was invented through trial and error until he got it right and had a light bulb.

Selling is implementing strategies to get sales.  There’s no hope in selling.  Selling is well thought out game-plans of action that result in sales or no sales.

If your strategy doesn’t work change the strategy.  If you are relying on one strategy you’re doomed for failure.  And if you’re hoping that’s even worse.

So, if you’re hoping this or that will work begin to change your mindset today and re-set your expectations properly. 

The goal is to implement your game plan.

You will get results from your game plan.

This may make you happy or may make you sad.

If the results aren’t what you want than add another strategy, tweak the existing strategy, and or implement more strategies because you need more than one prospecting plan.

Don’t rely on ‘door-knocking’, ‘walk-in’, mailing, drop-by, lawn-fishing, file research, mining your natural market, events, or any other one thing.

Do many things.  Develop many prospecting entry points for your sales.

But most of all, don’t rely on HOPE because it’s a sign of desperation on your part as if this doesn’t work I’m out of the business or I’m done.

There is hope in many things but when it comes to sales rely on your SELF and the activity you do that is necessary to generate the results you want.

Happy Selling!

David…

The question more or less was what’s the downside to doubling your sales in half the time?

Let me give you three quick problems with getting too much business without some preparation.

First Problem:

Let’s say the stars and the moon line up perfectly and everything you’re doing all of sudden nets you more sales and presentations than you can keep up with.

One of the biggest downsides to spending all of your time presenting and selling is you forget to continue your prospecting program.

One day you’ll wake up and realize there’s no one to meet.  The reason there’s no one to meet is you quit prospecting/marketing for new business.

Believe you me it can happen!

The solution is to treat your prospecting like a faucet and turn it down a little but don’t shut it off completely because if you do you just might wake up one morning with no one to see.

Second Problem

Spending all of your time making presentations.  See my posted articles on time.

It’s really important to time block your schedule and even more important to balance your day with other activities besides closing.

I realize the goal is to close sales but see my first problem above.

Spend your time wisely and always do something that brings you closer to a sale besides getting the sale.

Third Problem

It can make you lazy about getting referrals.  Now, if you tell me you’re getting referrals from all of those presentations/sales you’ll hear me tell you. “YES”.

Way to go.

But, don’t develop bad habits.  Remember to continue to get referrals. 

You’ve got to continue to bring in new leads.

Fourth Problem

Infrastructure.  Recently, I’ve been so focused on prospecting I’ve gotten behind in sending my notes.

I send a note to every new customer.  And, ask for referrals in that note.

In fact, I spend the first 30 minutes every day working on paper work, including notes. 

Yesterday I spent several hours on notes because I allowed my schedule to get out of whack.  I’ve been spending more time meeting with prospects and blew off the paperwork portion of my time-block. 

All of a sudden I found myself behind on my note writing.  I ended up getting up a couple of hours earlier than normal to make up for it.

Getting a lot of sales in a short time can mess up your routine and overwhelm your production infrastructure.

Finally, remember what got you there.

When things are clicking and everything’s working great stick with your time schedule, 

Stay disciplined.

Continue doing the things that get you in front of prospects but don’t ignore everything else because you’re on a presentation roll or you just might wake up one day and discover you’ve got no one to  see.

Happy Selling!

David….

P.S.  Be sure and take a look at the catalog as I continually add new items.  If you’re a member hang in there as I’m updating some new stuff and will email you a note when its ready.

For the rest of you….click here

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Random Thoughts On Increasing Pre-Need Sales

These are little things that may not seem like much but add up quickly to huge results.

Here’s an interesting ditty on time I haven’t spoken about much and I’m just as guilty as you are by not using this strategy.

A study done years ago looked at how much “productive” time CEO(s) accomplished per day working.

I’m going by memory but I believe it was less than 30 minutes a day of productive time.

One thing I know for certain, for the Pre-Need Seller, there are numerous time wasting things occurring every single day.  Before long YOU begin to wonder why your sales suck!

My Number One Strategy is:

LIMIT ACCESS TO YOU

To really appreciate this strategy you’ve got to take a long hard look at how much of your time (by the minute) is being stolen through little things. 

For example: 

1. If you are going to go to lunch make your lunch partner come to you.  You’ll be able to continue working and won’t waste 10 – 30 minutes in the restaurant waiting on your lunch partner.
2. Quit checking your email every 5-minutes.  Check it once, twice, three times a day at predetermined times.
3. Forget the impromptu meetings.  Meetings are out.  Meetings are the most unproductive time wasters on the planet.
4. Don’t wast lots of time with Prospects who are less than a 6 on a scale of 1 – 10.  Spend time with the 7 – 10’s on the scale.  Use your assistant (if you have one) or marketing to warm them up before you spend lots of wasted time on the phone or in-person meetings.
5. People need to complain about how hard it is to get to you.  Make it tough.  Quit wasting time by focusing on the little things that steal your time away.  Eliminating just a couple of these time wasters will add to your productive time and SALES.  By the way, sales is where it’s at.  These time wasting things take away from your presentation/close, follow-up, stay-in-touch, and other productive endeavors that ultimately make you money.  Stay focused! 

Finally, I’d say to use TIME BLOCKING to help you create a schedule you can keep.  Also, use your TO DO LIST and make sure you’re crossing off things you’ve got to do daily.  I like to use a simple yellow legal sized pad.  Without organization there is chaos (as my former teacher used to say).  I’ve added: 

Without organization there is chaos

and TIME WASTED

and NO SALES!

Top Producers are way more productive with time.  Just adding 30 minutes to an hour of productive time will increase your sales dramatically.

My Number Two Strategy to Increase sales:

The COPY STRATEGY

We’ll talk more about this one next time.

Happy Selling!

David

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I refer to this as a Champion Endorser® (see more on this in the Ultimate Package)

The best time to get referrals is early in the presentation.  The second best time to get referrals is to mention throughout the presentation and the third best time is after the sale.

In other words it is always a good time to ask for referrals.

Your monthly newsletter is another perfect opportunity to ask for referrals.

Whatever you do always be asking or bringing up the topic of referrals all the time.  People forget.  As soon as your new customer walks out the door he/she has forgotten all about it.  Remind them of referrals.

Finally, think about your process from beginning to end.

Put together a ‘referral’ opportunity into each step of your Marketing/Prospecting/selling/stay-in-touch/follow-up program. 

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

And, for Pete’s sake, don’t forget to reward your Referrer.  It can be a personal note, a pat on the back, dinner, candy, flowers.  Don’t forget to acknowledge your Referrer somehow some way.  I’m guilty of this mistake myself but you’ve got to do it (another one of my many New Year resolutions).  Better late than never but acknowledge your Referrer.  If you haven’t done so, do it now!

Happy Selling!

David…

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For most of us selling pre-need this time of year poses plenty of problems.  If you’ve already hit your goals for the year and heading off to a warm spot for the next couple of weeks disregard this post.

For everyone else working at the cemetery you’ll soon discover plenty of folks visiting graves of loved ones.

This poses a unique opportunity.

Work the grounds. 

Some call it fishing the grounds.

With lots and lots of people on the property you can easily strike up conversations.  As you do be ready for complaints ‘cause you’ll get plenty.  BUT, complaints are a good thing.  I’ve been working on the cemetery grounds for just over a week and have had huge success.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Roughly One in Three will want to do something.  Maybe another grave space, maybe a bench, a new marker….Something.  That something can be pre-need funeral.

Whatever it is…IT’S BUSINESS!

For the next two weeks it will be difficult to prospect because everyone (including you) will be thinking HOLIDAYS!

So, if you aren’t where you want to be get out onto the grounds and start talking to people.  You’ll soon discover fishing in a lake full of interested people will go along way to catching some fish (sales).

Happy Selling!

David

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