Conrey is for Closers

“Sorry guys, I hit every red light on the way here!”
“I spilled on myself on the way out the door and had to change, sorry I’m late”
“I’d have been on time if I hadn’t needed to stop and get gas”

Yeah, we’ve all used those when we were late for a meeting. Some of us even have way more creative ones that you are welcome to throw in the comments (I’ll update with the best ones).

Time management is one of those skills that is vital to a good Salesman. The practices reach deeper to other parts of your job as well:

Margin for Error:

• Time Management: If it takes you 10 minutes to drive somewhere, and you leave 10 minutes before you’re supposed to be there – YOU WILL BE LATE.  There are things you can’t control (red lights, little old ladies driving 10 mph under the limit, etc).  Leave earlier.  I aim for at least 10 minutes early for every meeting – more if I have farther to drive.
• Other Sales: If you have a quota, or a budget to hit and you only have enough sales to just cover it, YOU WILL MISS IT. There are things you can’t control (payment issues with your client, inventory issues, etc).  Aim to cover it by at least one deal so that you are only in trouble if you have two failures.

Overbooking:

• Time Management: You schedule meetings and calls back-to-back-to-back-to-back.  Guess what, one of those is going to run long.  Usually the one right before the most important one.  Give yourself some buffer when you are scheduling calls.  This gives you a chance to reset, get your brain ready for the next call, and get your real selling skills ready.
• Other Sales: You say you’re going to get a proposal out by a certain date and time when you’ve got a packed week. Guess what, you’re going to rush until the last minute to get it out.  Give yourself some buffer and schedule time to do this BEFORE the hour before its due.  This gives you time to spend the right amount of time on it and get it done right.

I can keep going here, but the moral of the story is that if you’re living with the mindset that one thing going wrong will throw everything out of whack, then you are in a firefighting mentality instead of a fire prevention one.  

Remember, only you can prevent forest sales fires.