All this week, I am talking about how to set up your selling week in order to maximize efficiency. In yesterday’s sales tip, I asked five yes/no questions to help you check your readiness.
Today, I want to throw three more ideas at you:
- Plan for prospecting— there is no “right” answer to the question, “What’s your plan for new business activity?” Some are faithful about booking specific time in their calendar and getting it done all at once. Others squeeze it in when they can. As I pointed out in my April 19 sales tip, making calls two at a time all day long can be effective. Whichever method you choose, you must somehow address the need to build time into your schedule for prospecting. Think of it in the same light as exercising and eating right. We know we should do these things and do them consistently but if we do not plan ahead, we will be once again explaining our missteps to a physician.
- Push-off non-urgent tasks to Wednesday— Sometime last summer, I decided to block off Wednesdays and not allow anyone access to my calendar. No coaching calls. No Vault workshops. Nothing but a day to create these blogs, Monday’s sales tips, and bonus content for Insiders. From an efficiency standpoint, it has been one of the better moves I have made. While you probably don’t do as much writing as me, I’d bet there’s a fair amount of paperwork, organization, and planning that’s a part of your job. Try this: schedule no meetings for Wednesdays. Use this time for the non selling activities and see what effect it has on your week. By pushing off tasks that aren’t urgent to handle them on Wednesdays, you’ll free up more selling time.
- Frontload the week with the most important stuff — hopefully, this is not due to my age, but I find myself far more energized at the beginning of the week than the end. As such, I have learned to work harder Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and leave Thursday and Friday more open. Things that don’t get done trickle to the end of the week. Then, I start a plan for the next week and the cycle starts all over again.
Effective and efficient selling weeks start with planning and preparation. If you can answer “yes” to the 5 questions I posed yesterday and utilize these additional ideas, you are set up for success.
Sales Vault Insiders, you will receive additional content on the subject of increasing productivity by planning your selling week, such as how to handle a horribly unproductive day, and advice I am currently telling my coaching clients that can increase sales momentum right through to December 31, 2021.
