Time! Using or wasting?

A fundamental aspect of successful time management in business is knowing which activities constitute work. In other words, what is your job description? What tasks do you have to perform to get the job done? It is helpful to divide these tasks into two categories: Pay and no-pay.

As a salesperson you visit prospects with the goal of spending as much time as possible with them in order to help grow their businesses.

Pay time: Basic time management requires that pay activities be performed during pay time. These are the hours during which customer/client is most likely to be available to do business. Pay time for a salesperson is defined as the time the prospect is open for business, usually 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The responsibilities and actions the salesperson has during pay time are those directly related to the generation of income.

No-pay time: No-pay time is any time outside the boundaries of your normal working schedule. This is the time for reading up on product materials, making sure the car is clean and has plenty of marketing materials, new marketing promotions and customer surveys; for completing reports and paperwork and planning goals. These activities must be done in order to be effective but are non-income generating tasks.