Success in selling is dependent upon the quality and quantity of one’s sales presentations, not upon the relative neatness of one’s office. That being said, it is still worth noting that every salesperson’s career can be enhanced by an organized approach to the basic elements of selling: finding prospects, setting appointments, making presentations, and following up with customers.

Your workspace is portrait of your inner self; it is a clear indication of your style of conducting business, and it is an indication of the way you live your life outside of the office. If your career is meeting all your expectations, and if the commission checks are rolling in on a regular basis, please hit the "back button" on your web browser and get back to work (whatever it is that you’re doing is working, so keep doing it). But, if you results could stand improvement, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at the organization of your workspace (or the relative lack thereof).

Your briefcase, your filing cabinet, your computer filing system, your telephone logs, even your daily to-do lists are all tools that can help you build a successful career in selling. If you maintain these business tools in an organized fashion, you can use them as they are intended: to increase your sales activity and thus create financial security for you and your family. If, however, you allow your business tools to fall into disarray, you will find yourself working harder and harder while earning fewer and fewer rewards.

The following tips are intended to help you organize your career and your life. Read and heed.

1. Thou shall be systematic in making sales calls. Even if every other aspect of your life is in disarray, you can still earn a good living in sales if you call upon enough qualified customers and ask them to buy your product. Thus, your daily list of sales calls must be organized (it’s best to prepare your list of telephone calls before you arrive at the office).
2. Thou shall be conscientious in returning phone calls and following up with customers. In sales, follow-up is almost as important as prospecting, so never put off a call that can or should be made today.
3. Thou shall not use one’s desktop as a filing cabinet. If a piece of paper has lain on your desk for more than two weeks, file it or trash it. PS: Thou shall also not use the floor as a filing cabinet, either. If you have papers scattered all over the floor, it’s sure sign that it’s time to either: hire one of those high-priced organizational consultants or take the time to clean things up yourself. You decide.
4. Thou shall store less paper and more electronic data. Data storage is now safe, stable, and amazingly cheap. Burn your import documents to CDs. For that matter, storage space is so plentiful and so cheap that you might as well burn your unimportant documents, too.
5. Thou shall handle each document as few times as possible. Once is best.
6. Thou shall do the hard things first, and get them out of the way. It’s the only decent way to live (procrastination is self-induced torture of the silliest kind).
7. Thou shall not be a packrat. When in doubt, toss it out.
8. Thou shall eschew yearly "spring cleanings" and opt, instead, for "daily doses" of organization. Organization should become a daily habit, not a once-a-year binge.
9. Thou shall develop thine own organizational system and use it religiously. Whether you prefer a computer, a notebook, or an index card, you must find a system that works for you, and then you must make that system work for you.
10. Whatever "it" is, thou must do it now, not later. Much of life’s clutter is simply the result of not dealing with the small discomforts of everyday living right now. The more we put things off, the more things pile up on our desks and, more importantly, in our minds. The solution is simple: we must address our little challenges today so that they don’t become bigger problems tomorrow.

by Dr. Cris Freeman