Eliminate Your Priorities – Organized for Success

I believe there is one particular reason why people fail in the merchant services industry.  It’s not because they can’t sell or are inherently lazy or stupid.  Rather, it’s because they are not organized for success.  In this episode discover how removing your priority levels will open the door for success.

One misconception with which I battled for years seems to be common.  This concept that going to work and getting the job done is simple could not be further from the truth.  The greatest challenge in my own business career has not been mastering financial concepts or understanding profit and loss reports.  Rather, creating structure and discipline around myself to leverage abilities and make things happen has been the most difficult.

As a sales rep there are two levers to pull.  One which I address often is the closing percentage.  That’s a lever you can pull.  A higher closing percentage or doubling your closing rate will double the number of sales.  The second lever of equal importance is the number of contacts you make.  To pull that lever requires an increase in the number of contacts daily, weekly, and monthly.  The only hope for that increase is to be organized for success.

Here is one simple tip which will help you in that organization process.  Remove your priority levels.  In my opinion priorities – thinking about priorities – is the biggest enemy of efficiency and organization when performing simple tasks.  In making sales, for instance, don’t waste time pondering which of the prospects in your pipeline is the “best” or top priority.  You shouldn’t need to wonder whether going to your child’s soccer game is a more important priority than your work time.  The key to making these types of decisions is DON’T make them!  Have a structure and system in place which makes those decisions for you.

When you were a W-2 employee, there was no decision to make between working or other activities.  There were extra rules and set hours to work then.  That’s structure.  You learned how to game the system to do what you wanted and get your work done.  However, now you must recreate that structure for yourself.

As a sales professional, you should have only two priority levels:  (1)  Important enough to do.  (2)  Not important enough to do.  This morning I had about seventy-five emails in my box.  So, at 7:30 a.m. I began working on those and had an empty box by about 10:30 a.m.  Here’s the way I work through my emails.  For each email, I make the decision whether or not to take action.  There is no A, B, or C priority.  I don’t decide whether I should act now, next week, this evening, or tomorrow.  My question for each email is, “Am I ever going to do anything about this email?”  If the answer is “no,” I delete it!  There were perhaps eleven of those seventy-five emails to which I replied, “Hey, thanks so much for asking me about this.  I’m not going to do this right now.  Have a great day!”  Then I delete it.  This is preferable to leaving it in my box or months, thinking about it every day, and making that person wait and wonder.  Why waste time and mental energy?

There are emails to which I should act.  In that case, I have a crazy radical concept.  I DO IT!  I don’t put it in a folder.  If I need to make a phone call, text or email, I DO IT!  That is the most challenging thing you will do is force yourself to work.  When I realize there is a prospect who needs a phone call, I have a default instant reaction of dialing the number.  If an email reminds me of a needed visit in person, I grab my coat and go.  Don’t prioritize it; JUST DO IT!

If you follow that simple tip, you will be incredibly effective and efficient.  Leverage your abilities to get things done by eliminating unnecessary decision making.  Join me for more tips in the next episode.  You can be organized for success!

Read the previous article here:  Why Most Decisions Are Meaningless  http://www.ccsalespro.com/why-most-decisions-are-meaningless/

Read the next article in this series here:  Building Success with Time Blocks – Organized for Success

Building Success with Time Blocks – Organized for Success