Step 2

Prioritise your calls for a sense of importance and urgency. We describe “important tasks”  as things that directly relate to your prime task of selling. If the task impacts your sales target, your customers or orders either directly or indirectly, then its important.  

Urgent & Important - See these accounts today! There is a time value to making this call. Urgent time values may be that their stock is expiring this week, they are going to be out of town tomorrow, an order deadline you have been promised is approaching, or you may be trying to beat your competitor in the door this week. These time values may apply to "A", "B", or "C" accounts. If your "C" account's typically orders their annual stock this week you better get in there soon.

Important but not Urgent - This should not be put off but does not need immediate attention. If delayed however, it may move quickly to a number 1 priority and you may have to do a lot of work in a short time. That is when you make mistakes. You may be working on a new account and want to put together a presentation you can present next time you meet with them. This type of work should be done before you begin making calls in the morning (prior to 9am) or after you get back to the office (after 4:30 pm). Don't spend your "prime selling time" in the office doing office stuff. Get out on the road and sell something. Prime selling time will vary with different accounts but generally between 9am and 4:30 pm you should contacting customers ALWAYS.

Urgent but not Important- If this is something that is urgent to do but not important then the question has to be asked why are you doing it? If it is not important to your role as a sales person then it should probably be done by someone else. Delegate it and focus on the important things.

Not important and Not Urgent - You probably will never do this task. If it is neither important nor urgent then you probably shouldn't waste your time doing it. The exception may be if it is an "A-3". If it is for an "A" account then it will move up the list to "A-2" quickly. Almost everything for your "A" accounts becomes important eventually.

Download the worksheet below to list all of the actions that you have on your to do list and identify what tasks are not really things you should and should not focus on.

These are the accounts that generally would be nice to call on when you have time. That does not mean to ignore them completely, but they are not to be a priority when properly managing your call time. They are not going to make a huge difference in your company revenues even when you do sell to them. However, you cannot ignore them. Try to use the telephone, fax or e-mail to contact them on a regular basis. Occasionally, you should call on them face to face. You can put these accounts on a rotating call list that requires you to visit them once every 4 to 8 weeks.