Great title from Justsell.com, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 From their monthly newsletter (sorry, no link):<\/p>\n
Top 3 activities that can hobble a sales day…<\/p>\n
1. Talking with people who can’t move the sales process along<\/p>\n
2. Unnecessary research activities<\/p>\n
What’s too much? There’s really no definitive answer. It’s particular to your sales world. Many people start to get a gut feel for when they should move on. The key is to act on it and make the call (rather than making sure every little thing is known before the call \u2013 fine line, of course). You might be surprised what you can learn by asking a straightforward question of the person who answers the phone or responds to an email.<\/p>\n
3. “Crafting” or “drafting” a script, email, or letter<\/p>\n
Needs to be done, but almost never during the money hours.<\/p>\n
Always remember…<\/p>\n
A real sales day is made of contact with people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Number 1 is so important in this bad economy.\u00a0 The tirekickers are out in force right now so qualifying decision makers is a top priority.\u00a0 Safe to say that most decision making has been elevated to a higher level so salespeople will have to navigate up within a company.\u00a0 Mid-level managers are probably upset with their loss of power so it take a tactful salesperson to elevate the discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Great title from Justsell.com, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 From their monthly newsletter (sorry, no link): Top 3 activities that can hobble a sales day… 1. Talking with people who can’t move the sales process along 2. Unnecessary research activities What’s too much? There’s really no definitive answer. It’s particular to your sales world. Many people start to get a gut feel for when they should move on. The key is to act on it and make the call (rather than making sure every little thing is known before the call \u2013 fine line, of course). You might be surprised what you can learn by asking a straightforward question of the person… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[1233,267,1232,187,142],"class_list":["post-1925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-management","category-sales-techniques","tag-qualifying-decision","tag-sales-approach","tag-sales-hobble","tag-sales-qualifying","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-v3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":233,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/how-to-hobble-a-sales-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":0},"title":"How to Hobble a Sales Day","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Justsell.com has a helpful daily sales email that contains practical tips. Today's offering (no link available): Top 3 activities that can hobble a sales day... talking with people who cannot move the sales process along unnecessary research activities What's too much? There's really no definitive answer -- it's particular to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1372,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/3-sales-time-wasters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":1},"title":"3 Sales Time Wasters","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A good reminder from the JustSell.com newsletter: Top 3 activities that can hobble a sales day... Talking with people who can't move the sales process along Unnecessary research activities What's too much? There's really no definitive answer. It's particular to your sales world. Many people start to get a gut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2054,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/06\/adjusting-a-sales-process-for-this-recession\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":2},"title":"Adjusting A Sales Process For This Recession","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The thought of retiring is going to be a novel idea in the near future, at least according to a new abcnews.com poll.\u00a0 In a recent survey of Americans (my bold): Half the population in this new ABC News poll thinks both job security and retirement prospects in the years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1399,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/qualifying-is-in-the-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":3},"title":"Qualifying Is In The Questions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Successful selling is far more than being a smooth talker.\u00a0 It requires the ability to listen attentively and move within the conversation.\u00a0 This principle is discussed in a ManageSmarter.com commentary titled Build Sales Relationships: Consultative Questioning. The opening recollection of the author's first sales position is excellent: I marched into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":465,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/sales-time-wasters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":4},"title":"Sales Time-Wasters","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sales & Marketing Management has a short article about what holds back sales reps - Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps. Some of the findings from the study: * Salespeople spend just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2020,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/preparation-vs-execution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1925,"position":5},"title":"Preparation vs. Execution","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"SellingPower.com\u2019s article - Help for Your Pre-Call Prep \u2013 makes a bold statement in the opening sentence: When you get right down to it, sales are won or lost on preparation. I would argue that sales are won or lost on execution.\u00a0 Give me a salesperson who executes flawlessly any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Techniques"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1927,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions\/1927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}