What if I told you that most sales forces underperform?  And when I say “underperform,” I mean anything from “doesn’t quite achieve its potential” to “complete and utter waste of time and money.”  Maybe your sales force falls on that continuum.  If it does, I can tell you why – it’s the same reason that I’ve seen in every underperforming sales force.  Most salespeople spend most of their time making useless, agenda-free and objective-free calls on people who cannot buy or whose purchase would not be impactful even if they could.  That’s a big issue, isn’t it?

I’m often asked (by managers who have the above problem) about doing a program on “time management” for salespeople.  To me, time management is a pretty elementary subject.  Years ago, I took a time management course and in it, we spent significant time discussing the difference between what’s important and what’s urgent – the idea being that we spend too much time doing what is ‘urgent’ versus what is ‘valuable.’  That’s probably true.  But there’s a deeper level that goes far beyond simple “time management” and into “professional discipline.

That issue is “value.”  We, of course, think of “Value” when we’re selling or proposing, but oddly enough, not when we’re building our schedule.  If most people spend more time doing what is urgent than what is important, they spend even less time doing what is VALUABLE.  Can you think of a more ass-backwards way to try to achieve your objectives?

Let’s define our terms.  The three words – Urgent, Important, and Valuable – can mean different things to different people.

“Urgent” means “requiring immediate action or attention.”  “Immediate” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly “urgent” implies a short timeline.

“Important” means “likely to have a profound impact on success, survival, or well-being.”  Something that is “Important” is something that absolutely HAS to be done but could have a flexible timeline.

“Valuable” means “worth a great deal of money.”  In other words – this is what you’re really paid to do.

To put it in context, let’s think of a typical outside B2B salesperson.  This salesperson might have to balance:

An ‘urgent’ duty like making a delivery to a customer who is out of product.

An ‘important’ duty like completing a report to a supervisor.

A ‘valuable’ duty such as making sales calls on a Fred.  (Don’t know what a Fred is?  Read this article.)

Sounds simple and easy to balance, right?  Here’s what happens, though.  Salespeople too often elevate non-urgent tasks to “urgent” status, de-prioritize “important” tasks, and the “valuable” never happens.  How should you deal with this?

• Commit to spending at least 50% of your time on things that are Valuable – i.e. face time with Fred or tasks that facilitate face time and selling to Fred.
• Do what is Important a bit ahead of schedule.
• Delegate Urgent tasks when you can – you’ll be surprised at how often those things can happen without your personal involvement.

Sales Managers face a similar dilemma.  An “urgent” task might be smoothing over the feelings of an upset customer, while an “important” task might be forecasting sales for the C-suite, and “Valuable” tasks would be the time spent coaching and developing salespeople.  Whatever your inputs, the resolution is the same.

• Delegate “Urgent” tasks when you can.
• Do what is “Important” ahead of schedule.
• Spend at least half your time on what is “valuable.”

If you follow this recipe (whether you are a salesperson, sales manager, business owner, or solopreneur), you’ll be amazed at the results you can get.

One question I get asked a lot is, “Troy, is there still a role for direct mail communication in sales?”  My answer is “Yes.”  First, however, I want to make one very important point:  The very best sales letter, brochure, or marketing piece is no substitute for even an adequate face to face sales call.  Written sales communications should be designed to facilitate the sales process, not replace it.

With that in mind, let’s think about our objective for a sales letter (for brevity’s sake, I’ll refer to all written sales communications as letters).  The purpose of a sales letter (or for that matter, any form of sales communication) is to advance the relationship between seller and customer.  Period.  The litmus test for anything you’re about to send out, therefore, should be: Does this advance the relationship in any way?  If it does, you’ve got a good start.  (This is true for letters to prospects, as well – if the letter makes it more likely that a prospect will see you, it has advance the relationship.)  Following are some ways a good sales letter can advance customer relationships:

Educate the customer.  This is perhaps the all-time best way of advancing a customer relationship.  If you can impart some piece of knowledge that helps your customer do a better job of running their own business, you win.  If you’re selling to end users, think about ways to teach your customers how to better use your products and services; more successful implementations reflect on your knowledge and expertise.  If you’re selling wholesale, consider teaching your customers better ways to sell, market, and price your products.  If you sell to a vertical market, consider regular communications that help your customers identify industry trends quickly.  You get the idea.  If you hadn’t already figured it out, “Educating the Customer” is the primary purpose of the HotSheet.

Tell them about new products or services.  Most companies add products and services from time to time, yet many of those same companies forget to tell their customer base about the new products and services.  If you’ve ever had a customer say, “Hey, I didn’t know you did that, too,” you’re probably one of those companies.  Remember – our objective with each customer is to sell them as much of our stuff as possible.  A letter announcing new products helps advance the relationship by letting them know everything you could be doing for them.  Make sure you remember to talk about the BENEFITS of the new products, as well.

“By the way, we also sell:”  This is a close relative of the “new stuff” letter.  If you sell multiple product categories or lines, your first sale usually will not cover the entire length and breadth of your product line.  You still want your customer to know what you do, so after thanking them for their first purchase, send out a letter saying, “You might not be aware, but we can also serve your needs in these ways,” etc.

Personnel change notifications.  Although it’s not pleasant, turnover in sales and service can’t be helped.  If your outgoing salesperson has a large customer base, it’s probably going to be difficult to call them all (either by phone or face to face) before one calls in asking for Joe, who no longer works for you.  Be proactive and let your customers know who will be taking care of them after the current person’s departure.  Personnel changes tend to induce fear in customers (that their needs won’t be taken care of), so the more proactive and reassuring you can be, the better the relationship.

Of course, the types of written communications you might want to do encompasses much more than I have space for here, but if you give each letter the litmus test discussed above (does it advance the relationship?), you will be far ahead of those companies that send out communications that do nothing for either the sender or receiver.