3 Ways to Improve Your Sales Organization Skills

In my experience, in order to effectively manage salespeople, it helps to be one yourself.

By understanding their personality and motivations, you're better equipped to provide them the support and guidance they need to excel in line with the company's goals.

While everyone is unique, there is plenty of common ground amongst all types of salespeople. Quite often, one of the biggest challenges they have is a need to improve their organizational skills.

In fact, from experience, I'd say that the sales professionals with the greatest talent are often the worst at organizing their activities. What makes the difference is that they work hard to overcome that shortcoming, and that attention to detail takes them to the next level.

I've spent years overcompensating for innate disorganization, which has paid off time and again. I often joke that the reason I'm obsessed with efficiency is that I'm basically lazy: if get everything done, and done right the first time, that's more spare time for me later.

So, what do you need to do in order to be better organized? Here are a few suggestions.

Plan Your Day Exactingly

First, commit to using some software to track your activities. Whether it's Outlook, Maximizer or another option, you need to constantly use it.

Every day should be full of To-Do entries of who you're going to call, who you're going to email, and who you're going to drive out and call on.

Plan these events out as far into the future as you have to. If you have a sales prospect that won't be ready for you for six months, then put them in your calendar six months down the road.

The underlying reason for this is so that none of your leads, prospects or clients fall through the cracks. None of them should ever be neglected, and in the current economy, you can't afford to let prospective business slip through your fingers because you "forgot" to call back.

Jot Down As Much Detail As Possible

When booking all of your activities, include everything you need to know: the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of each contact.

When you're following up, you want to have the facts in front of you so you can have a more productive discussion. This should include not only details of a jobsite or project, but also personal and potential hot button topics for the prospective client.

A huge part of selling is building rapport, and a mentor of mine used to counsel us that we should learn as much as possible about our clients. Show an interest, and build a relationship with a personal aspect to it.

Keeping detailed files on not only your projects but your clients will be a big help.

Stay On Top Of It

It's not enough to have a system in place and just write everything down. That's only half the battle. Once you have a system, you need to work it diligently.

You have to power through your To-Do list every day. At the beginning of the day, look at your calendar and take stock of what you need to do. At the end of the day, set up and organize what you're going to do tomorrow.

Even if you don't get everything you intended done in a day, move the pending events to the next day on your calendar. It won't take too much procrastination, and a growing mountain of commitments to guilt you into being more effective on a daily basis.

Getting organized is a habit; it's no different from making a commitment to eat right or exercise.

Once you make the commitment and begin working on it, you'll see the benefits: more business, more clients and more money. That will reinforce your new found good habits and give you motivation to continue.

Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee’s business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com