To Make More Sales, Make Time for Preparation

Have you ever watched what an athlete does before their event? Or any type of performer before their production?

There’s stretching, visualizing, time with their coach and teammates or cast members, practice, and often quiet reflection. They often say they can “hear” the applause from the crowd in their head during their preparation.

No matter what the endeavor, there is purposeful preparation needed to perform at top levels.

And yet when I mention preparation as one of the key activities for increasing the probability of higher performance in selling – and converting prospects to clients – I get a lot of head nodding.

It seems nearly everyone KNOWS that preparation increases performance. Yet, when I ask what gets in the way of consistent and productive preparation, the #1 reason given is time.

Think You Don’t Have Time for Prep? Make Time!

The “No time” and “I’m just so busy” mantras seem to be the rote answers for almost everything someone hasn’t done or doesn’t want to do, doesn’t it?

Yet, we all have 24 hours in a day. We all have 60 minutes in each hour.

So, is properly preparing for your sales conversations a matter of not having the time or not MAKING the time for an action that increases your success by 17-25%, according to our closed studies with clients?

When you MAKE the time for preparation, you’ll prepare.

Tips for Making Time

Here’s some tips for making time:

1. Schedule in buffer time. Meeting after meeting without 5 or 10 minutes in between doesn’t allow you to even breathe let alone be mentally prepared for the next meeting/conversation.
2. Block out prep time each day or week depending on the # of sales conversations/meetings scheduled.
3. Put your phone on silent or Mute during prep time so you aren’t distracted.
4. Put pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard – preparation is then more substantive.
5. If you have admin help – use them for your prep. For me, I have Kevin who has a prep document that he completes for me. Instead of 30 minutes of prep I now only have 5-8 minutes!

Cue the Applause

Stop making excuses and instead make the time to prepare for your sales conversations.

Your confidence will rise – and so will the buyers. Your ability to be “present” and listen to the buyer will increase. And your conversion and close rates will soar – heck you might even hear thunderous applause in your head!