Audrey Thomas

When I receive email confirmations for upcoming travel (airline, hotel and rental car), I either insert these emails or drag them from my Inbox directly to the departure date on my calendar. This is a great way to have all of my travel information where I need it when I need it. When your travel date arrives, you can print out these confirmations if you prefer having this information in a paper format.

In working with sales managers in a variety of industries, here are some tips they've shared in being organized, staying on top of their game and getting a high level of work done when others around them seem to flounder.  

1. Master your CRM program (i.e. SalesForce.com, ACT, Outlook, etc.) Keep tasks and opportunities up-to-date. Check it every day.
2. On your hard drive create a standardized filing system for each prospect/customer. Be consistent by creating sub-file folders in the following categories for each company:  
   • Communications - Internal
   • Communications - External
   • Contracts
   • Presentations
   • Pricing
   • Other
3. Although using the phone is a quick way to speak with someone and involves a 2-way dialogue, it's important to communicate with your client how he/she prefers. This could be telephone, texting, email or Skype.
4. Develop libraries of presentation slides by topic so building a custom presentation will take minimum time. This way you can quickly put your hands on slides with research, financial data, logos, graphics, etc. that you frequently use.
5. Always back up the latest version of a presentation and delete former versions. When conducting an in-person presentation, take a backup on flash drive.
6. #1 Travel Tip: Don't travel. Often a 1-hour webcast is easier to get than a 30 minute face-to-face meeting. It's non-threatening as there's no sales person looking them in the eye and trying to close them.
7. Other Travel Tips:
   • Travel with your own GPS. This saves much time and hassles in getting lost. Program client addresses as well as your hotel's address before leaving town.
   • Drag travel confirmation emails to your calendar on the expected travel date. Everything will be at your fingertips when you check in for your flight, rental car and hotel.
   • Keep your airline, hotel and rental car membership numbers on your phone so you can confirm this information along the way.
   • When traveling if you find accessing your CRM program on your Smartphone is a lengthy process keep a printed copy of your key contacts for quick and easy access. You can easily export this information to an Excel spreadsheet for quick printing.
8. Use templates - email, voicemail and letters - for all sorts of correspondence. You probably respond to web inquiries, write thank you notes, send cost quotes, etc. on a regular basis. Using a template in which you can copy and paste will save you a tremendous amount of time.
9. If your company allows it, keep one month's worth of Sent and Deleted emails. If you have CYA emails that need to be kept, drag them to your hard drive.
10. #1 Meeting Tip: Don't have meetings
11. Other Meeting Tips:
    • Don't accept meeting invitations. Consider using a template response of "Why should I come to this meeting?"
    • Shorten the length of your meeting to a mere 15 minutes. This will force you to stay on topic and works to shut up long-winded people.
    • Be known as someone who always starts on time thus avoiding punishing those who arrive on time.