Time management requires discipline but the answer is not necessarily an ideal week.
Topic – Mastering time management
Mentor – Danelle Hunter
- mark out times in your calendar for prospecting as a non-negotiable
- ideal week / appointments – don’t let client dictate
- eliminate distraction
Property Management Matters with Tara Bradbury – We go role playing with Tara. Here is what she learnt
Transcript:
Kevin: One of the things we say quite often in the show is that you can’t manage time, but you can manage what you put into the time, which is the subject we’re talking this week to Danelle Hunter about. Danelle is a director at Biggin & Scott in Knox. We talked yesterday about time management and why it’s important. How do you go about improving time management, Danelle?
Danelle Hunter: Look, a lot of people say go with your ideal week sheet. I don’t necessarily believe in that, because an ideal is never really going to happen. So I think the best way to do it is every day, work out what you need to get done for that day. Work out what’s urgent, what’s less urgent, and what, ideally, you would like to get done. And then start with the most important things first and work your way through it.
Kevin: What if the most important things are the things you don’t like, those difficult calls? You know, we’ve heard about eat the frog. Is that what you do, or is it really just what priority?
Danelle Hunter: It’s really just priority. And if they’re difficult things, just get them out of the way, because if you’re dreading it all day, as well, you know, “I’ve gotta make that call. I don’t wanna do it”, if you get it out of the way, at least then you can move on and you’re not worrying about that, as well.
Danelle Hunter: So get the important things out of the way, the things that you don’t want to do, and then work on the rest of it. I know, in sales, especially, when I was in sales years ago, I was always told, “Don’t go home without getting all the clients to sign the contract. Make sure it’s finalised.”
Danelle Hunter: And I know a lot of my staff will take an offer and the vendor will agree verbally, and then they’ll be like, “Oh, we’ll get it signed off tomorrow, or later that day.” You just have to get it done that day. There should not be any waiting, that people can change their minds, pull out of the contract.
Danelle Hunter: So things like that. Make sure you get it done the same day. And at least, then, it’s done, and you’re not going home thinking, “Oh my God! What if the buyer decides to change their minds? And they haven’t initialled the price change.”
Danelle Hunter: At least it’s done. You’ve just gotta focus on getting those important things that can obviously affect a sale, out of the way.
Kevin: Just listening to you now, Danelle, it seems to me that you’ve got a very high defined sense of urgency around what is important. That tip you gave is there. While it’s a great time management tip, it’s also a very good negotiation tip. Always get it done at the moment. Don’t put it off. Don’t procrastinate.
Danelle Hunter: Definitely. I remember I was turning up to vendors’ houses at midnight. And my old boss, then, I was working for someone, would be like, “You’re not going home until it’s done.” And I’m like, “But she’s not home til 11:30 at night,” and she’s like, “Well, I don’t care. It needs to be done, because if they change their mind, then the whole deal’s over.”
Danelle Hunter: So you’ve wasted your whole day doing something because you haven’t bothered to just finish it off.
Kevin: Now, you said at the start of this morning’s segment that ideal weeks are not the way to go. You effectively, in a way, I guess, create an ideal day by making sure that you mark out in your diary what are the most important things, or the things that you’re going to do.
Danelle Hunter: Yes, that’s right. I do, and I do have some things that in our business are non-negotiable. So prospecting every morning from nine to eleven is a non-negotiable. So we do have that. And then after that, that’s when everything gets prioritised.
Danelle Hunter: But a lot of the time, my staff say, “Oh, but these people can only do an appointment at ten o’clock. And I’m like “No, you’ve got prospecting between nine to eleven, and that’s non-negotiable.
Danelle Hunter: I think that’s what you need to realise, as well, is don’t let the client dictate to you. If you’re gonna be in a certain suburb at a certain time, and it works for you to see that other person after your appointment, you need to dictate to them what you want. Don’t allow them to dictate to you and say, “Well, no, I can only do these times.”
Danelle Hunter: There’s always gonna be other times they can do, and you need to book your appointments and see how it suits you, not how it suits them.
Kevin: Yeah, great tip. And tomorrow, when Danelle comes back, we’re gonna help you by looking at the tasks that need to be prioritised. We’ll help you with that.
Kevin: Danelle, thank you very much. We’ll talk to you tomorrow morning.
Danelle Hunter: Thank you.