I'd venture this happens to every rookie sales person. No matter how good their initial training was.
They are bound to eventually put on the pitch of their life just to go into the close an realize that they DID NOT QUALIFY their prospect and the person they just pitched actually can't make a decision, possibly can't even influence that decision.
No other field is as performance centric as sales were success is immediately measured in dollars, wasting two hours pitching an unqualified prospect is a rookie mistake. For experienced sales people its literally self-sabotage, you just cost yourself two hours of prime selling time that didn't move you closer to a sale. And you could have avoided that by simply qualifying the prospect at the beginning. Qualifying is the key to sales.
Qualifying is also the key to productivity. The questions asked a slightly different and you hopefully already ask yourself these questions when creating your to-do/tickler/action plan.
- Is this actionable work that will move me closer to my sale/objective/etc?
- Am I just doing this task because I'm trying to make myself busy?
- Is this the best way that I can spend my time today to get ahead?
There are numerous other variations on these questions, but in end these sampels are pretty representative of the questions you should and need to ask yourself when creating your to-do/tickler/action plan. To-do lists often get clogged with unnecessary busy work that your mind invents. Before you schedule a task or start a task just ask yourself: If I do this task what benefit does it provide? Does it get me any closer to my goal/sale/whatever? It doesn't. Well forget about it then... put it on a backburner, mark it with lowest priority you have. Do something else. Something that'll help you 'move the needle' so to say.
Do it now. Stop reading! Qualify your customers and qualify your tasks. It's the best advice I can give you. Well that and don't even think about opening a restaurant.
