You've Got Limited Free Space

The right tools at your disposal can make all the difference, and help you avoid information overload. The fact is, as bright as you are, you’ve got limited free space in that brain.

I’ve personally chosen to limit my brain’s free space for crucial information, locking-out important information that I can reference with something in-hand.

Salespeople need systems for managing the information in their lives. We are all bombarded with facts and figures we’re expected to remember or cite with little delay.

If you fail to maintain a system, you will drop the ball at some point in time. And dropping the ball results in lost credibility. But memorizing and having-immediate-access-to are different things.

My personal system, while still evolving, involves these tools:

Facts & Figures. This is the biggest area salespeople let fall through the cracks. There are a variety of tools I use to keep hold of important facts and figures. For client interactions, after all these years, I still keep a “site seller” that’s stocked with data and samples of what I can do for my clients. Every statistic, every testimonial, every paper-based sample, it’s all categorized, all nicely stored in the highest quality protectors in my site seller. To have to get back to someone on a fact or figure you should know or have your fingertips is a killer.

Calendar. I generally use my Palm for calendaring, but have tested both Google Calendar and Scrybe lately. I’d prefer not being tied to a device, but I do like having a system where I’m interrupted with reminders prior to appointments or time I’ve allocated for specific projects, rather than having them written down in a planner. I write every appointment down, and I keep every appointment on one calendar. I don’t rely on “magically” remembering anything date-based, or forcing myself to look at two sources of calendar-based commitments.

Email. I use Google’s Gmail for personal and business email, and I count on stars, filters and labels to categorize and sort my info. Occasionally I’ll email myself a todo to tackle later (see the next section for more on that). The value of Gmail? I can use it not only to access email from anywhere, but it’s an adequate file storage utility as well to access additional facts-and-figures documents. Only occasionally do I take my laptop in on short visits where I’m not giving a presentation.

Tasks/Todos. At the end of each day, I generally follow my outline in my post titled Daily Download, but I’ve changed my tool for managing them. I previously used my Palm for doing this, I now use oversized graph paper. I’m a visual thinker and learner, and I need to see, mapped out, what I need to do, whom I’m doing it for, and when it’s due.

The principle I follow is this: remember what it’s crucial to remember, but have immediate access to the important information; also, keep your newly generated information in as few resources as possible. Some of these principles are based on those taught in Getting Things Done, by David Allen. As I read over it, my system sounds more complex than it actually is. It’s a manageable, ongoing routine that rarely causes me to miss a deadline (though I’m still working on sticking to my self-imposed deadlines for long-term projects!)