Speed tends to be the name of the game in sales. The faster you make a sale, the quicker you earn that sale’s commission and can move on to the next prospect in your sales funnel. Faster sales mean more money. The problem is, how can you speed up the sales process without getting sloppy or pushy?

According to Colleen Francis, in a post for Engage Selling, the key to faster sales has to do with your efficiency.

The Key to Faster Sales

Organization is the key to faster sales, says Francis. Yeah, yeah, it seems obvious, but do you actually take it seriously? More people than you think, probably including yourself, have their own way of organizing their desk, desktop folders, Dropbox folders, etc., and it’s most likely more chaotic than they realize.

The way Francis describes how some sales reps “organize” their workspaces is enough to give you a headache just reading it:

“… they have a stack of papers on one side of their desk for one client, a folder somewhere in the havoc they call a filing cabinet for another client, some notes on their laptop for yet another client, some files on a tablet for the same client they’ve dedicated that stack of paper to, and a Dropbox folder that contains some necessary resources for each of their other clients, except for two whose documentation they store on their iPhone.”

Does this description remind you of someone? Even if it isn’t you, perhaps a colleague comes to mind who could benefit from a bit of tidying up. Being able to find your sales-​related resources quickly means that you can perform your sales duties in a more timely manner. Faster sales benefit everyone in your company, no matter who is making them.

It’s Time to Get Organized

Do you want to save yourself time by not having to sift through your mountains of disorganized files, both physically on your desk and saved on your work computer? Take a few hours to organize your resources. Develop a filing system that’s easy to remember and put into action when you need to find prospect or product information. Condense the folders on your home screen so that you only have a few key ones to navigate between. No one can easily find a folder on a screen that’s full of them. Throw some color coding into your Excel sheets to draw the eye to the rows you need faster. Get creative in your organization but remember to keep it simple to navigate.

And don’t forget to include your inbox in your organization. As I pointed out in a previous SalesFuel blog post, “Few people can maintain their email inboxes without putting conscious effort into the process." Organize your inbox to make faster sales by:

• Creating folders with titles such as “To-​Do” or “May Be Important Later”
• Set rules for messages from top clients to put them in important folders you check often
• Set more rules to filter less important emails from specific addresses into a secondary section of your inbox that you can check at a more leisurely pace

SalesFuel’s CEO, C. Lee Smith, also recommends centralizing your email and calendar. Your calendar is one of the most useful tools at your disposal. Don’t trust yourself to remember all the information in your emails. If you have a meeting coming up, flag it on your calendar (digital, physical or both). And if you need to do prep work for that meeting, flag time for that on your calendar, as well.

Photo by grinvalds on Unsplash