Finish this sentence: “I could sell more effectively if I…”

When presenting this open-ended query during training sessions, John DeRosa, director of contractor training at SRS Distribution, said most often, people will default to wanting more time, whether that’s two more hours in a day or even one more hour in a week.

“This is not an original thought by me, but the whole idea of time management is … kind of disingenuous, because we can’t really manage time,” DeRosa said. “We can’t control how much time we have. We can only control how we use it.”

With that in mind, DeRosa discusses how sales reps in the distribution industry can make the right decisions with the time they have to become more effective in their roles. DeRosa says it all starts with a plan and having a goal in mind, whether it’s a personal goal or a directive from your company.

“What I always ask reps to do is to think about who are your key accounts and assuming you do all the right things with those customers, what do you project their sales to look like next year or their purchases?” he said. “Look at your growth accounts, the low-hanging fruit, maybe these are the people that have the greatest opportunity for growth.”

From there, it’s a matter of determining what actions need to happen with those accounts in order to make the most effective use of your time. This is where most sales reps will hit a snag, says DeRosa, as they feel they don’t have the time to execute all those tasks to hit their goal.

To find out what DeRosa’s solutions are, view the full conversation here, or visit our podcast page and download the episode.