The ABC's of Prioritizing Your Workload

We've all been held captive by our messy desks and inboxes only to realize that after hours of productivity we really haven't accomplished the activities that truly allow us to "make" money in our business. It's easy to get caught up in our own crazy schedules without doing something that will allow us to stay engaged in money making activities only to realize that at the end of the day we don't have any appointments for potential new clients.
Prioritizing your work as A-B-C work will allow you to always be doing the right things to stay in front of clients and continue to make a great living in commission sales. Obviously it would seem that A work would be the most important to accomplish which is correct, but sometimes it's not the most obvious.
Let's define what A work is for sales people.

- Prospecting
- Setting appointments
- Calling clients for referrals
- Setting interviews

The above bullets are great ideas and the core of any salesperson's livelihood. Without these types of activities occurring everyday on your schedule you won't have new places to go or new business to write and you need to make sure you block at least 2-3 hours every morning to do these activities.

"B" work is work that is also important but not crucial. You should block about 1-2 hours a day to do your "B" work or if you are in a position where you can afford help assign these tasks to an assistant. The following list are some examples of "B" work.

- Double checking applications
- Calling the home office on questions regarding a client
- Thank You cards
- Mailers

Though this work is important it's not CRUCIAL to you having another appointment.

"C" work is what most of us spend the majority of our time doing. This would be anything that isn't covered above such as organizing your desk, making phone calls to friends or relatives, surfing the web, etc. Also staying camped out in your inbox would qualify. Don't let "C" work completely consume your day and bring your productivity down. When you realize you are slipping into a "C"oma, change your direction and find some "A" work to bring you out of it!