by Ryan McNally

For print salespeople, time is of the essence. You’re putting in long hours while customers expect you to be accessible 24-7, 365 days a year. You’ve got to answer to print buyers, marketing personnel, ad agencies and more, all while juggling a variety of tasks, including communicating with customers, interacting with CSRs and suppliers, and keeping up to speed on paperwork. And oh yeah, you’ve got to drum up new business too. With a finite number of hours in the day, making the most of your time is critical to
being a good salesperson. But how do you master the art of time management? Develop a system You can’t manage your time if you don’t have the proper tools. Technology can help. Maryann Pope, senior account executive at Lake County Press, calls ACT her “bible.” “I believe it’s one of the top client relationship programs out there,” says Pope. “When I started using ACT, that’s when my business boomed.” 

Other print salespeople prefer Outlook. “I use Microsoft Outlook extensively,” says Fant Smith, sales representative at Courier Printing. “By using
the provided tools to their maximum capability, you can focus on things that computer programs can’t do.” In addition to ACT, Pope uses a program called JobZ, which she says is another big time saver. “It’s produced by a guy who used to sell print, so he understands our industry. It allows us to electronically create RFEs, quotes to the clients, and much more. It’s so much faster than doing it by hand, and as you’re doing projects that get repeated or are similar to other ones, you can call up what’s in the system, and a lot of the information is retained.” 

Of course, plain ol’ paper still has a place in the organization system for many print salespeople. “I still use a day-timer,” adds Pope. “I still like to write stuff out. When I’m driving and I need to make a note, you can’t do it electronically.” 

Once you’ve got your computer software in place, reading business books can help you develop a good foundation for effective time management. “I’ve developed my own system based primarily
on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” says Jackie
Priest, account executive for Geographics Inc. Keith Werstler,
regional sales manager of Freeport Press Inc., has done the same. “Covey talks about understanding all aspects of your life in terms of having influence over them or only concern for them,” says
Werstler. “What he says is rather than putting efforts into areas of concern that you don’t have influence on, focus your time and energy on the areas of influence where they may be effective in bringing about the desired results.” Prioritize According to a CANVAS survey (see sidebar), print salespeople spend the biggest chunk of the day communicating with customers via phone and e-mail, with the next largest time allotment spent working on administrative tasks or paperwork. But what if you only had two hours per day? How would you spend them? Thinking in these terms may help you identify what areas you should be prioritizing. “If I only had two hours a day, I’d absolutely be in front of clients,” says Patsy Koepke, vice president of sales for Graphcom Prints. “The relationship is always and will always be the most important part of the business. If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.” But what about administrative tasks? “I’d
go see a customer a day, and then park at the nearest Wi-Fi hot spot to crank out the administrative stuff,” says Priest. Also splitting her time is Pope, who would divide her two hours 65/35 between sales tasks (face-to-face with clients,
e-mail, phone) and implementation (with her CSR,
internal shepherding). Some would stay in the office and work from there. “I’d need to become an ‘inside’ sales rep and do all of my sales collaboration on the phone and on e-mail with pdf proof workflow,” says Paul Berryhill of CK Graphics. Smith would also spend his time at the workplace. “I’d walk the shop and work the ‘inside sale’ (thank our employees for what they do) and write handwritten notes to my largest customers,” says Smith. So how do you best juggle time devoted to real selling exercises with paperwork, job tracking,
delegation and other administrative tasks? In reality, as a print salesperson, your job will often resemble a carnival performer juggling 15 balls at once. How to make sure they don’t all come crashing down on you? Streamline your time management system by minimizing distractions and procrastinations, fine tuning your timesaving strategies, and remaining flexible to the challenges that will inevitably arise at the most unexpected times. Eliminate time wasters Identifying potential distractions and causes of procrastination is a key step toward managing your time better. And paperwork seems to be the top item print salespeople tend to put off. “I hate paperwork (billing), and in the past I was very slow about billing,” says Smith. “I now have a practice to bill my work the day I get it or the day after. I’m much more proactive about keeping the records well and am able to bill much more easily than in the past.” Enthusiasm to score a new sale can lead to follow-up work on new or existing jobs piling up. “If I have the choice between taking the time to go over a new job that I have just sold with my CSR so she can get into production, or making a call or follow-up that I think might contribute to the prospect of making another new sale, then I will nearly always do that instead,” says Berryhill. According to Werstler, it’s easy for a sales rep to feel like since a job has shipped and billed, the process is complete. “I often put off invoice reviews,” says Werstler. “But it’s important to remember that smaller customers sometimes need more help understanding miscellaneous charges and how to best avoid them in the future, and invoice review can help keep a customer from feeling frustrated and let them know you’re involved until the entire process has concluded. Plan ahead Taking the time to plan and organize across the board is a huge part of good time management. “At the end of the day you always need to have a list of goals, in order of priority, of what you need to accomplish the next day,” says Koepke. “But always know that you’re probably going to have to switch that order when the day gets there because things change. You’ve got to be flexible with your time, but you’ve got to set those goals the day before so that you at least have a guideline.” Keeping a detailed calendar is a great timesaving strategy, agree Pope and Smith. “I’ve always got the big picture of what my day or week or month looks like,” says Pope. “I’ve always got those
client names and follow-ups in front of me.” Smith says he rarely has anything to do that’s not in his schedule, including recurring appointments. “Outlook and BlackBerry are probably the best time savers I use,” says Smith. “I rely heavily on the scheduling function of Outlook and take it with me wherever I go via BlackBerry.” For Werstler, timesaving organization comes in the form of
taking and keeping clear and decisive notes. “Having a detailed record of conversations or requests can reduce spec errors on the original estimate and keep a salesman from calling a customer for information that has already been discussed,” says Werstler. Berryhill’s best timesaving strategy has been setting up online remote desktop access from home and streamlining communication with his coworkers. “I created a unique set of communication
shortcuts to empower my CSR to get up and running on the work,” says Berryhill. “This year I’m going to try digital tape-recording
of CSR instructions on projects and see if that adds to the mix
of shortcuts.” The art of mastering time management may vary from
person to person and company to company, but a few constants transcend these differences: Keep reading and talking
to colleagues to keep up on the latest trends and tips, get
organized and fine tune your time-management techniques, and remember to keep communications with your clients and team members flowing. As Berryhill says, “Time management is all about great systems, great listening skills, and a staff behind the rep that resembles a pack of eager bulldogs who never loosen their clench on those details until the job is out the door and the invoice is in the mail.”