PPB May 2017

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| MAY 2017 | 61
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A business owner I know has
10 salespeople. After doing this
exercise, he discovered each seller
was spending approximately
three hours per week answering
customer inquiries. The owner
was shocked because he had put
a system in place whereby the
operations people would answer
inquiries. When we discussed
it further, the sellers said they
answered inquiries themselves
because they felt the operations
people took too long to get back
to the customers. They were
protecting their relationships, but
using time that could have been
devoted to business development.
The fix was communication.
First, the two groups discussed
the definition of reasonable
response time and agreed on what
was acceptable.Then, the sellers
introduced the operations people
to their customers in order to
springboard relationships. Finally,
the receptionist was trained
to direct customer inquiries
for existing orders directly to
operations and new orders directly
to sales. As a result, the company
gained 30 additional hours per
week for revenue-generating
activities.That is significant and
came about as a result of doing the
simple R and N exercise.
There is a direct correlation
between time spent and success
as long as you’re doing business
development right. If you spend
more time you will have more
results—it’s that simple.
Caryn Kopp is the Chief Door Opener® at Kopp Consulting. She has helped thousands of business owners and
salespeople secure initial meetings with high-level decision makers in almost every major company including
P&G, Pfizer, GE, Merck, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, Kraft, Target and CBS. Reach her at
.
If this describes you too, here is an exercise you can do to find time in your busy day to devote to
business development. I call it the R and N exercise.
Keep a log of how you spend your time for two weeks.
For each activity put an “R” next to any time blocks that are REVENUE‑generating
activities (new business, not business you would have had anyway). Put an “N” next
any NON-REVENUE-generating activities (including generating reports, answering
customer or internal inquiries, filling out paperwork, etc.).
Total the hours per week spent on revenue-generating activities. If it’s two hours
per week or less, it’s not enough. The more time the better, but there is definitely a
threshold where it’s not enough to make a difference.
Identify which non-revenue-generating activities don’t need to be done at all moving
forward and which ones need to be done but can be done by someone else (think
carefully before you decide that you are the only person who can do a non-revenue-
generating activity). You may need to discuss your list with your manager to get buy-in.
There is a direct
correlation
between time
spent and success
as long as you’re
doing business
development right.
If you spendmore
time youwill have
more results
—it’s that simple.
R and N Exercise