There are 1,440 minutes in a day, but not all of them can be spent selling. Take time out for sleeping, eating, commuting, relaxing, and other nonselling efforts and you'll probably wind up with about one-third of that time. That's why prioritizing your sales time is critical. Time is money.

If you're new to professional sales — or feel like you are wasting time — learning how to prioritize your time and efforts can dramatically increase your efficiency and your income. Many pro salespeople will tell you that it is one of your most essential skills. A priority is something that gets prior attention over other things. More commonly, it is establishing a sequence of important things based on a desired outcome. If your sales career is a top priority in your life, you will spend extra time learning as much as you can about how to do it well. If Customer A buys more from you than Customer B, serving A will probably be the higher priority.

How can you determine what priorities you should have in selling? Should you be spending your time in training, learning about your product, visiting with customers, resolving delivery problems, or keeping records? Yes, all of the above, but which ones are your highest priorities? In what order should you work on them? To answer, you need to review your job description and your sales goals. For most sellers, they are similar:

• Make sure that current customers are satisfied with your services.

• Close current sales.

• Help buyers who are nearing a decision.

• Start new buyers in the purchasing process.

• Find prospective buyers.

• Learn more about what you sell so you can better answer buying questions.

• Keep adequate records.

All of these are priorities for you as a professional seller. However, some are more important than others. Notice that the suggested priorities begin with making sure that your current customers are satisfied. They are tomorrow's sales. The next-highest priorities include moving buyers to the purchasing decision, beginning with those who are now closest. Then make sure you find new customers to replace those who drop away as well as to increase future sales. Only then should you work on training and administrative tasks. Too often, new salespeople gravitate toward the tasks that are most enjoyable to them and avoid others. They may soon be changing careers. Professional selling requires setting your priorities based on your customers' and your employer's needs over yours.

Once you've determined the order of your sales priorities — based on your goals and your job description — it becomes easier to apply or “work” your priorities. There are many ways of doing this. One is by time allocation. For example, you can allocate one hour a day toward making sure that current customers are satisfied with your service, priority one above. Then you can set aside an hour or more to priority two, closing current sales.

Of course, selling, as life, isn't quite that neat. Instead, you may spend an entire day helping a primary customer resolve an issue with the manufacturer or shipper. Then, you may decide that none of your current customers are sufficiently near closing to work with that day. Instead, you decide to focus on starting a new buyer in the purchasing process (priority four) or even finding prospective buyers (priority five). Maybe at the end of your day or during the evening at home, you can take care of some of the record-keeping that is piling up. Prioritizing your sales efforts won't tell you exactly what to do at any point in time; it only tells you what order you should consider them. Schedule management (see Chapter 18) can help you control your time and priorities.

In some sales jobs, your priorities are either dictated or guided by management. They have an overall sales process and plan that requires you to work by established priorities. In these jobs, there often is a salary as well as a sales commission. For the salary, they may expect you to report on your daily activities based on their developed priorities. If you feel that you can be more efficient with a different priority structure, you either can negotiate with your employer or find a new one. Most prefer to negotiate.

What employers understand is results: sales. If you can show that you are a productive and efficient seller, you may be given latitude in how you use priorities to organize your efforts. You may even someday be offered the job of sales manager. However, don't expect your boss to easily change the established priorities and selling system. In fact, the sales manager may have earned her or his job by coming up with a profitable system and only increased sales will make the manager change the established priorities.

More often, the negotiation of sales priorities will be within you. Should you make that sales call today or, instead, work on developing a prospect? The answer lies in knowing what your sales priorities are and in what order they should be worked. Establish these priorities during your first days on the new job and re-establish them if you find yourself lost in your profession.