Get 12 Hours in an 8 Hour Day

Time Management for the Memorial Counselor

 How to Get 12 Hours Out of An 8 Hour Day!

     But first I’ll cover a couple of principles you should be shooting for in your sales career.  The first principle is to work smarter, not harder.  The smarter you work the less you work and the less time you’ll spend at the office wasting time and energy on unproductive things.

There’s never enough time to do it right the first time but
there always seem to be enough time to do it right the second time!

     The second principle is to kill two birds with one stone.  Anytime you make a Presentation and Prospect at the same time you are killing two birds with one stone and saving precious time. 

     Time is an interesting topic.  In our society today, we seem to always tell everyone that we have no time.  We are so busy we barely have time to get things done let alone setting aside time to relax, think, plan, and enjoy the good things in life.

     The third principle is the concept of working to live, not living to work.  It’s imperative to have balance in you life.  If you are spending 80 hours a week at work all the time pay special attention to my time management for memorial counselors’ tips. 

How to work less and make more money with a time management machine

     There are three basic techniques to time management:

• Time blocking
• Working smarter
• Discipline

  Time blocking is a very powerful technique that will create a lot of down time for you, consistency in your scheduling, and force you to be even more productive.

  When I first started in the cemetery business I set aside two hours for prospecting via phone every work day, same time, same phone, same office, with a cup of coffee.

  Once I began to ask for referrals during my presentation I virtually saved two hours a day as it was no longer necessary to cold call again.  That’s the power of mining your natural market!

Work smart save time, work less & play with more time

  Another example of blocking time is to always schedule your presentations during the same block of time daily.  If you need to work during the evening, schedule a block of time one evening weekly, same times, to make your evening presentations.

  I knew a guy that worked in family service and followed up with his families’ one of two evenings during the week.  It was either Tuesday or Thursday evening.  He would block a four hour time frame, four in the afternoon to eight at night every week.  He never deviated from that schedule.

  The result is he trained his customers to expect those times and days.

  It is similar to a Doctor who blocks out certain afternoons for patients.

  The example to copy is a Doctor.  Almost any Doctor blocks time to meet patients.  He/She never deviates from the schedule.  Blocking time saves enormous amounts of time for you and makes you even more efficient.  Doctors typically block different days and different times for new patients verse current patients.

  We’ve learned to expect time blocking at the Doctor’s office.  Most people think of a Doctor as having little time.  We’ve been trained well to believe this.  You are no different then a Doctor.

  A side benefit to blocking time is people appreciate it.  If people know you have a set schedule and do not deviate from it they will respect you even more.  The opposite is also true.  The more available you are the less you will be appreciated.

Play a little hard to get…

  Availability turns you into a commodity; a very bad thing to do.  Commodity products are thought of, in the mind of customers, as cheap and price is the major issue.  Never ever turn you or your product into a commodity.  Add value when ever you can, block your schedule and don’t be very assessable.

  Discipline is critical.  You can drag a horse to water but you can’t make the dumb horse drink the water!  You’ve got to dig deep down inside to find that spark of what makes you tick.  Take what makes you tick and turn it into discipline to do what needs to be done to be successful.  The tips in this course will guide your direction and help you achieve the outcome you are after.

  In other words, I can drag you to the watering hole but I can’t make you drink the water!  It requires discipline.  I can’t make you do it.  You have to figure out what makes you “do it”. 

Use a checklist to block time

  I remember a former Sales Associate I worked with who had a checklist of 5 things he did every day no matter how late he stayed in the office to accomplish his list.

  He followed up with three at-need families every day, sent a handful of letters to referred prospects, phoned for an hour, and walked the cemetery grounds (he would write down a few names of markers that didn’t have the spouses name.  He’d look up the information in the vault and contact the spouse about completing the cemetery portion and or pre-need funeral).

  Block your time like a Doctor, work smarter and more efficiently, and find the discipline necessary to get it done.

Happy Selling!

David…

P.S.  Invest in your SELF.  If you  don’t no one else will.  They can’t take your education and experience.  Those are the two things that make you marketable and in demand.  Get on over to the catalog page and invest in your SELF today!

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