We all know the first rule of investing in our retirement future: pay ourselves first. It’s sound advice. Be sure the first money set aside from each paycheck goes into savings and investments to ensure a financially successful future.

The same principle applies when investing in your future sales success: pay yourself first. Sometimes, this requires a financial investment, and it always requires an investment of your time.

You have two jobs

As a producer, you have two primary responsibilities.

Keeping the clients you have and getting the ones you don’t.

Just like the financial demands of daily living, the activities of “keeping what you have” (i.e., service work) will nickel and dime you to death and cause you to live “paycheck to paycheck” if you don’t have the discipline to spend wisely and also invest in your future.

Whether it’s your paycheck or the hours in your week, something will always take every last dollar and every last hour. The problem is we usually don’t have anything to show for it in the end.

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Take the challenge

So, my challenge to you in preparing for your future sales success is to pay yourself first. Before you commit to any of the activities of keeping what you have, block out hours on your calendar every week for the sales activities that will ensure your future sales success.

Be sure to allocate those hours among the following:

  1. Face-to-face time with prospects
  2. Prospecting time on the phone or with centers of influence
  3. Researching the prospects currently in your pipeline
  4. Practicing your sales skills
  5. Building your business acumen

Once you have this investment time on your calendar, schedule around it. This is as high a priority as anything you do during your week.

Just like investing financially, setting aside the hours will hurt a little, but you’ll adjust in no time. The reality is that we have countless wasted expenses in our financial lives and wasted hours in our sales lives. If we just find a little discipline and prudence in how those dollars and hours are spent, our lifestyles and current book of business will never suffer from paying ourselves first.

And, at the risk of a little self-promotion, consider how a financial investment into the right training and professional development program can guide you on a path to reach your professional potential by ensuring those hours are as productive and efficient as possible.

Happy investing!

 

Content provided by Q4intelligence

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