---
title: "How Marketing Professionals Can Manage Themselves"
description: "Self-management is a crucial topic for modern marketing professionals, involving self-discipline and behavioral habits. This article shares practical methods for self-management, time management, customer management, and financial management to help marketers work efficiently and achieve success."
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published: "2014-08-06"
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# How Marketing Professionals Can Manage Themselves

> Self-management is a crucial topic for modern marketing professionals, involving self-discipline and behavioral habits. This article shares practical methods for self-management, time management, customer management, and financial management to help marketers work efficiently and achieve success.

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**Introduction:** Self-management is a subject that modern marketing professionals must face. To some extent, it is also a form of self-regulation of one's mindset. Self-management, as the name implies, is also called self-discipline—the constraint and management of one's own behavioral habits. Only by managing oneself well can one work in an orderly manner and devote oneself wholeheartedly to one's future. Below are some summarized methods and approaches to self-management, which I share with you here.

1. **Self-management:** Marketing personnel regulate their own behavior and establish a positive, confident mindset through purposeful, multi-method steps.
2. **Time management:** Reasonably understand and fill each day. Methods and steps to effectively use time.
3. **Customer management:** Marketing personnel generally have a fixed sales area and manage all customers and potential customers within that area. How to reasonably arrange contact time with each customer, the steps and sequence of work, and handle relationships with each customer is a challenging management task.
4. **Financial management:** How marketing personnel manage their income and expenses, and how to allocate business expenses appropriately, is also an important task. Marketing personnel are managers; they must manage themselves, customers, finances, and more.

**I. Self-Management:**

**1. Concentrate Fully**
Sales is a highly challenging industry; you must concentrate fully to succeed. Sales can temper one's will and survival skills because salespeople face different environments and customers. Only by simplifying your private life, minimizing matters that do not help your marketing work, setting marketing goals, and completing work targets according to plan can you become a top salesperson.

**2. Set Appropriate Goals**
Working hard without goals wastes a lot of energy. Setting appropriate goals is also the driving force that motivates salespeople to strive. Therefore, salespeople must set appropriate goals. Once you set a goal, don't let yourself forget it; find ways to remind yourself at all times—for example, write it down by your bed or on your desk to remind yourself daily. With goals, you need a plan. With a detailed plan, you have a greater hope of rewards. Andrew Carnegie, the American steel magnate, outlined seven steps: First, determine a specific goal. Second, assess the effort you need to put in. Third, set a deadline for success. Fourth, start executing immediately. Fifth, don't give up when encountering obstacles; stick to your original intention. Sixth, write a pledge, recite it morning and evening, and adhere to it unwaveringly. Seventh, cultivate lasting endurance, use high intelligence, and calmly handle all unexpected changes.

**3. Keep Advancing**
When a salesperson continuously breaks their own records and moves toward a life of truth, goodness, and beauty, that is advancement. After setting goals, you must abandon the desire for comfort or laziness and charge toward your goals. Everyone has immense untapped potential; as long as you keep advancing, you will be amazed at how much potential you have.

**4. Perseverance**
Perseverance means enduring hardship and not giving up until the goal is achieved. Salespeople must have an unyielding spirit and far-sighted vision to cope with the enormous psychological pressure of sales work.

**5. Self-Confidence**
A salesperson's self-confidence not only helps them psychologically handle various setbacks and temptations in sales work but also helps gain customer trust when interacting with clients. Additionally, for efficient sales and good self-management, other factors are involved:

(5-1) **Maintain Good Physical Condition:** “Health is the capital of revolution.” To work efficiently, you must maintain a healthy body and mind. Therefore, develop good dietary and hygiene habits; ensure adequate sleep; regularly engage in physical exercise and relaxing entertainment. Also, cultivate a healthy psychology and cheerful mood—this is very important.

(5-2) **Continuous Learning:** Salespeople need to constantly supplement and update their knowledge. Knowledge plays a decisive role in the sales process. Many foreign salespeople are MBA graduates. Changsha Cigarette Factory's salespeople are distinguished from other manufacturers by their high quality, knowledge, and technical expertise. Although salespeople undergo short-term training upon employment, and the company and transfer stations regularly organize learning and training, this is far from enough. More importantly, salespeople must use all spare time to learn. Only then can they truly serve as customer advisors and adapt to the company's rapid development. Time can be squeezed out; for example, when visiting clients, you can use waiting time or time waiting for clients to study.

(5-3) **Enhance Relationships with Supervisors and Colleagues:** An important aspect of self-management is handling relationships with the company, supervisors, and colleagues. Just as you strive to provide maximum service to customers, you must be willing to put in the same effort for the company. You will often be asked to do things you don't want to do, but no matter what, try to fulfill the company's wishes as much as possible, and treat the company the way you want to be treated.

(5-4) **Responsibility for Work:** Responsibility requires you to be diligent and attentive to details, including attitude—an attitude of striving for perfection in your work. Responsible salespeople do not look forward to the end of the day or week, nor do they get bored with repetitive daily tasks. They are fully engaged in their work and willing to devote a lot of time. Responsible salespeople never neglect family, community, social, and other obligations; instead, they complete them enthusiastically because all these obligations constitute a vibrant life.

**II. Time Management**

**1. Personal Time Management**
Time is precious for salespeople. “Sales is a 24-hour job.” To become a professional salesperson, you must seriously learn time management methods. Do you have signs of poor time management? Check the following questions:

(1) Are you working on many projects simultaneously but seem unable to complete them all?
(2) Do you find it hard to concentrate on the current task because you're worried about other things?
(3) Do you get particularly upset when your work is interrupted?
(4) Do you come back to your dorm every night exhausted but feel like you haven't accomplished much?
(5) Do you feel you never have time for exercise or leisure, even just for fun?

Effective personal time management requires first determining your life goals. “Face” and “discover” where your life goals lie. Ask yourself: “Why am I busy?” “What do I really want to achieve? What to accomplish?” Next, require yourself to “strive to complete everything.” Unfinished work returns to your desk the next day, requiring revision and additions, so you have to do it again. The benefit of striving for completion is that it gives your life a rhythm, increases sales effectiveness and work efficiency, enhances satisfaction and a sense of achievement, and gives you better control over work progress.

Time management can follow these simple principles:

(1) Set work and life goals and prioritize them.
(2) Make a list of things to do each day.
(3) Execute work according to the established priorities.
(4) Ask yourself, “What should I do now to use time most effectively?” and then do it immediately.
(5) Discard unnecessary things.
(6) Do one thing at a time.
(7) Strive to complete tasks.
(8) Act immediately; do not wait or procrastinate.
(9) Use self-discipline tools such as diaries, desk calendars, phone books, or other notebooks to help manage time.

A salesperson who effectively masters time is bound to be a winning salesperson.

**2. Time Management for Sales and Client Visits**
Sales results are often closely related to effective time use. Some salespeople with good abilities and professional knowledge often make things messy or find themselves overwhelmed because they fail to grasp the essentials of time and work procedures. Here are some tips for salespeople:

(1) **Set sales goals:** This gives you a sense of direction and aligns all efforts toward the same goal, reducing hesitation or anxiety.
(2) **Plan your work:** Planning in advance avoids working under pressure; that is, following the plan prevents confusion and tension.
(3) **Set priorities for client visits and task handling:** Be good at deciding which tasks should be completed first, what should be done first, and who should be visited first.
(4) **Complete work in stages within deadlines:** Use a diary or similar to allocate completion times and deadlines.
(5) **Clarify responsibilities and delegate effectively:** Chaos often wastes time. Division of labor not only completes work more effectively but also gives you more time with clients.
(6) **Reserve time for unexpected events:** During the sales process, abnormal situations often occur, such as clients changing their minds, making last-minute appointments, or dropping by unexpectedly. Therefore, set aside buffer time and mental preparation to handle exceptions.
(7) **Cherish time spent negotiating with clients:** When negotiating, keep the topic clear and avoid irrelevant subjects. Guide the conversation and learn as much as possible. Idle chat not only doesn't help sales but can also affect the client's impression of you.
(8) **Train clear communication and guidance skills:** Speak clearly and forcefully; hints or concealment can cause misunderstandings, which often waste time.
(9) **Avoid overexertion:** When tired, work often takes longer to complete.
(10) **Find quiet moments:** Set aside half an hour each day to think about plans, consider problems, clarify thoughts, or motivate yourself.

**3. Customer Management**
Efficient management of customers in your sales area is crucial. You may have dozens of customers at different stages. For each customer, maintaining contact and advancing each business is important. How do you manage your area?

(1) **Categorize each customer**
(1-1) **Classify by project level:** Based on project influence, divide into A, B, C, D, etc. Generally, key customers with high project influence or general customers with good financial status should receive more time and effort to ensure success.
(1-2) **Classify by project progress:** For short-term projects, concentrate fully and complete the deal quickly. For long-term projects, maintain a reasonable contact frequency to avoid competitors seizing opportunities. At the same time, establish at least one reliable informant in each customer organization to effectively provide progress updates, allowing you to visit efficiently or control project progress.
(1-3) **Schedule based on appointments:** When making appointments, try to take the initiative and arrange time scientifically to make effective use of prime sales hours and balance meeting times with each customer.

(2) **Develop a visit plan**
Once you've categorized customers, determine how often to visit each category. Based on the visit plan, roughly calculate how many visits you need per month. If the number is reasonable, follow the plan; if not, reduce visit frequency or replace face-to-face meetings with phone calls.

(3) **Develop a route plan**
A sales route is a fixed travel schedule that enables salespeople to maximize coverage of the sales area and use time most efficiently. A good route should be designed to get you to the right place at the right time and eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth.

Salespeople generally use four route plans: straight line, four-leaf clover, spiral, and zone. The straight-line type is used when customers are more or less in a line; the four-leaf clover is often used when the sales area is large and requires several days; the spiral type is used when customers are scattered; the zone type requires dividing the entire area into a certain number of zones based on travel convenience and customer density.

(4) **Use telephone sales promotion**
Because salespeople's time is limited, sometimes meetings with clients are postponed for various reasons. Skillfully using phone sales can save a lot of time and effectively reduce sales expenses.

When using phone sales, first clarify a few things:

(4-1) **When to use phone sales instead of visiting?** Generally, phone contact can be used to understand basic information, but for detailed sales and market conditions, especially personnel matters, you must rely on visits, through conversation and observation. Also, when the other party asks you to call, or to schedule a meeting time and place, etc. But understand that some matters require face-to-face meetings, even formal meetings, to resolve. Don't rely too heavily on the phone.

(4-2) **Avoid these situations when calling:** Don't make unprepared calls; that is, briefly write down what you want to say before calling and follow the outline. Avoid discussing complex technical issues over the phone because they are hard to explain clearly. Don't call from noisy environments. Don't call during the client's sleeping hours. Keep calls reasonably short.

(4-3) **Phone usage tips:** Ensure the phone has sufficient battery and a clear signal. Use standard Mandarin. Always use respectful titles and polite language. Maintain enthusiasm. Control speaking speed to ensure clear and accurate articulation. Cultivate the art of listening. Being a good listener isn't just pausing your own speech; if the client thinks you're not listening, they won't listen to you either. In phone conversations, try to let the client talk more. Sometimes you need to encourage the client to talk by asking questions that can't be answered with just “yes” or “no.” For example, don't just ask, “Did you receive my materials?” After the client confirms, also ask, “What do you think of my materials?” Let the client know you understand what they're saying. Ask questions related to what the client says or respond, which keeps your mind active and maintains the client's enthusiasm.

**4. Financial Management**
A difficult issue for salespeople is financial management. When you start selling, your income may be limited and business expenses small. As your sales ability grows, income will reflect your contribution to the company. At the same time, business expenses will increase accordingly. How to effectively use business expenses to strengthen relationships with decision-makers, executors, and influencers to support your business progress? Spend money where necessary, but don't waste it. Salespeople often have a bad habit of comparing themselves with others because they deal daily with distributors and white-collar leaders of enterprises, leading to a competitive mentality. I advise frontline salespeople: as long as your language and behavior reflect your quality, there's no need to compare in other aspects. This period is about tempering your future, not superficial vanity!

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