The majority of people in the sales force spend an average of no more than two hours out of their day actually selling.

This fact is astonishing for two reasons. One, how do we as sales people manage to meet our goals. And two, why on earth are we in sales to begin with?

The lack of hours spent selling in our work week is understandable. Lets face it. The paperwork alone can take up half of your day. Not to mention the phone calls, the problem solving, putting out fires, etc.

There are many challenges to be faced throughout the day.

Why is this? Why does this happen?

It is all believed to be a mind set, and a very dangerous one at that if you plan to survive in the world of retail.

Because problem solving and handling customer complaints is a difficult challenge we must face on a daily basis, we automatically believe that this should take priority over our selling, because we see the selling as fun and rewarding.

All the other issues can be stressful, so we tend to want them out of the way so we dont have to worry about them.

Yes, dealing with current customers and building the relationship is very important, but your goals dont go away. So we must obtain new customers through new sales.

Probably the key ingredient to spend more of your time selling is time management.

Put together an action plan for each day of the week where you allow at least four hours of your day to be spent selling.

It is very easy to put an action plan together, but it is extremely critical that you stick to it in order to succeed.

Another key ingredient to spending more time selling is delegation. If you have the luxury of a staff, why not delegate some of the operational issues to other people.

Plus, you know the rush you get from a sale, the thrill of closing the deal. This can have a psychological effect on your work day. Making a sale is a great feeling and certainly out weighs the depressed feeling that comes with dealing with operational issues all day.

Remember, you are a sales person, and it is very important to spend the majority of your time selling.

There is not a problem that your current customer is having that cannot be fixed by either you or the person you delegate it to. So concentrate on sales.