PPB February 2018

shortcut called Quick Parts in Outlook. It’s a library of emails he can plug into a current email and quickly respond to clients. “Above all, in sales you have to be selling, and I make sure I get in at least one hour of making cold calls every day. Set a time to do that. Mine is 11 am. That time is my time to be successful.” Technology aims to help people work smarter and more seamlessly, but it also has its distractions. “I can create reminders and alarms on my phone, but then get sidetracked with a Facebook or Instagram post. I find I ammost successful when I block out my time—30 minutes here for email, 30 minutes there for calls or answering voicemail, etc.— and leave my phone on the charger so I don’t look at it as frequently.” Sparkman says time management is the area she struggles with the most. “I don’t want anyone to ever feel rushed when they are talking with me or asking me questions, so I tend to spend quite a bit of time with others, and my day easily (and quickly) gets away fromme.” She says she’s had success managing her time when she uses a calendar to block out time for everything— checking/responding to emails, returning phone calls, calling current customers, focusing on prospects, etc. “The key is to treat the time I’ve blocked as an appointment I have to be present for and not just dismiss it.” Organize Everything. Like many salespeople, Hare’s workspace can move from the cafeteria at an end user’s office to a Whole Foods to a hotel lobby, so her two most valuable organization tools are game changers. “The first is OneNote. This program allows me to take notes during every meeting, access all my notes from any device and, most importantly, organize and categorize all the information I might need to find. It’s also searchable, which is key since I often forget which folder I used. The other is followupthen.com. It allows me to schedule reminders in the easiest possible way. I always struggled to find a system that allowed me to schedule follow-ups—my calendar got too cluttered if I used it for reminders, and if I put things into a folder for follow-up, it was too easy to ignore. This service delivers follow-up reminders right to my email inbox, whenever I want to schedule them.” She advises, “Do yourself a favor and visit their website to watch the short video explaining their service.” While Hare likes tech tools, others interviewed for this article like to go “old school”—keeping a clean desk outfitted with only a cell phone, laptop and a notebook. “I use a notebook and write things out,” says Mealor. “I tried to use my cell phone to track stuff, but less is more. The simpler you keep it, the better.” Bosworth also likes the traditional route and makes a folder for every project. “Having the notes available to take home with me is helpful; I don’t want to be sitting with my computer on my lap.” When he’s working, PCNA’s Kaufmann likes to keep everything he needs within arm’s reach. “Getting up frommy chair breaks work momentum and gives me cause to find other things to do while I’m up,” he says, adding that he’s very visual so it helps to see everything at once. He uses an electronic version of his schedule but also keeps a planner book open to the week at hand. “I set up my laptop, phone and tablet as multiple screens, viewing current email with one, a website with 7 Eric Seamount Senior account executive SAGE “Above all, in sales you have to be selling, and I make sure I get in at least one hour of making cold calls every day. Set a time to do that. Mine is 11 am. That time is my time to be successful.” FEATURE | Tips and Techniques of Top Sellers 48 | FEBRUARY 2018 |