On average a sales person spends less than two hours per day selling their products. This statistic never seized to amaze me, even though I had often found myself being an active participant of its findings.
Lets face it, if we spend so little time in our day selling, why are we in sales to begin with?
There is no such thing as an easy day in the mortgage industry, it is filled with many challenges from follow up phone calls, to problem solving and research, which, in the end, leaves very little time for sales, or so we think.
Here are a few tips for increasing the amount of time you spend selling during your work day, follow these simple steps, and I am sure you will find yourself taking quite a few more applications through out the week, and most of all, putting some fun back into your work day.
It is understandable that your work day will not be without its set of challenges, such as research, putting out fires, scheduling appointments, retrieving e-mails, and responding to the many phone calls you receive during the day.
It is common knowledge in the mortgage industry, that the best time to make your sales calls is roughly between 5pm and 8:30pm, this is true.
Try this simple technique if you have not already. From 1pm to 3pm, find a secluded place in your office where you can hide out so you can concentrate on making phone calls, if a secluded place is not available, than work from your desk, however, make everyone in your office well aware that you are making sales calls and that you are not to bothered, regardless of the reason (barring major emergencies of course). Kindly ask them to hold all your messages until you are done.(I have no doubt you will get your boss's approval on this).
Once you have started don't stop for anything, don't surf the web or get side tracked by conversations going on in the office. Act as if no one in your office exists except for you, and bang out your phone calls!
More than likely between 1pm and 3pm you will be getting peoples answering machines, no problem, this is exactly what you want. Your goal should be to leave twenty to twenty-five messages during this time. On average, two of these prospects will return your call.
Think of it this way, it's no different from a mailer or a door hanger, except it's better because it is personalized with your voice!
Still reading? Good, here's another hint
Make an attempt to spend at least one hour per day to learn something new about sales. Trust me, no matter how much you already know, there is still an ocean of sales knowledge you still don't know.
For starters, you can subscribe to a Sales magazine (expense it if you can) and read it regularly, take it with you when you go to lunch, or if you take a coffee break. Better yet, make it as much a part of your work day as checking your e-mails, make it the first thing you do when you come in, from 9am to 10:00 a.m. read about the sales industry, it's a great, and positive way to start your day.
If the magazine doesn't suit your needs, find a book on sales, there's only a million of them, many are on the New York Times best seller's list, that alone should tell you something. Commit yourself to reading fifteen to twenty pages per day!
Keep reading
These two simple steps alone will add three hours of selling to your work day, and undoubtedly add to increased production.
With just a small amount of discipline and commitment on your part, you'll be back to doing what you do best and loving every minute of it. Besides, this is the reason your in sales, to sell! Don't ever lose sight of that!
In addition, your amount of applications per week will increase, which will ultimately lead to more closed loans.
Best of all, you will be having fun and your day will fly.
jay Conners is the owner of http://www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource center for all mortgage brokers,loan officers, and lenders. He also owns http://www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company specializing in fresh mortgage leads.