Why I Believe Selling Should Come First and How I Do It
As salespeople, most of our time is dedicated to talking to clients and closing deals. But aside from that, we have internal stakeholders to manage, administrative tasks to do, emails and messages to respond to, travel time to consider in-between pitches, among many other functions that are part of our role.
We have many responsibilities in our hands, but among all that, our role is still primarily about selling. And to become productive and efficient with how we use our time, tasks that are associated with that should always come first— talking to clients, preparing for pitches, measuring progress against goals, and so on. In addition, we should also plot for the continuous development of our knowledge, skill, and discipline.
The key to becoming a high-performing salesperson is to plan the work so we can work the plan. And that’s exactly how I practice my craft to keep myself in the direction I want to go without overworking myself. I want to share the weekly habit that helps me manage my time better as a salesperson.
Each Sunday, I set aside 15 minutes to establish my priorities and plan how my upcoming week will go. What I do is:
- Plot my working time for the week; usually, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
- Schedule my priorities within the timeframe allotted. This includes meetings that I need to attend or activities that I can’t postpone.
- Block times for selling tasks, such as prospecting or attending client pitches throughout the week.
- Identify three things that I have to get done each day, usually something fast that I can already get out of the way instead of postponing.
- Identify a specific knowledge, skill, and discipline I will develop for the week. I think about things I can do to progress on each pillar, such as reading or keeping myself in check to apply certain strategies during my pitches.
- Assess what tasks I have to say “no” to. Prioritize what I can and figure out tasks that don’t really need my attention to proceed.
I use this time to design my ideal week, and at the end, I track how I performed against the standard I set. This allows me to stay on target, become more productive, and make measurable progress week by week.
Here’s how I prioritize:
Selling
All tasks directly related to selling are prioritized and are added first in my week’s schedule. I set aside time blocks for activities that involve pitching to clients and getting more prospects—calling potential customers, sending cold emails, networking online and offline, attending client calls and meetings, responding to client questions, preparing for presentations, and so on.
Self-development
Self-development includes activities related to improving myself. Preparing for skills, I’ll use to sell, practicing my selling and presentation, getting feedback from the team to address any gaps and improve the chances of closing the deal. These are extremely important items that may often be disregarded. But keep in mind, if you aren’t practicing with each other, you’re practicing with your customers. And we shouldn’t do that.
This is also when I can improve my knowledge, skill, and discipline. Activities such as reading a new book on networking, getting myself to ask more impactful questions for the week, or telling myself to start every meeting with a purpose-benefit-check strategy belong as a second priority. As I highlighted in previous posts, our knowledge, skill, and discipline should be continuously evolving and need to be nurtured throughout my career. It should make time for it, and not if only I have the spare time.
Communication
The third priority is all about communication. Following up with client requests, writing proposals to send during my Selling schedule, or capturing stories I need for my presentation. This is also my time to get in touch with customers and go above and beyond by asking for their feedback and how else I can help them.
I also can’t avoid important internal emails, so I insert them in this schedule to set aside the time to respond to any pressing issues I need to address or take action.
Internal
I allocate my fourth priority for any important internal activities that I need to attend. This includes meetings, one-on-one discussions with my team, town halls, quarterly evaluations, updates to stakeholders, and other internal activities and updates.
Tracking
My fifth priority is all about tracking, such as updating the CRM, assessing my progress, measuring my progress against goals, planning my next steps, identifying baselines, and coming up with benchmarks. Everything that has to do with measurement and tracking progress is my fifth priority.
Everything else
All other tasks that don’t fit to the five priorities above are of last importance. These are items that are less important or likely not to have a significant impact if canceled or postponed for a couple of days—for example, administrative tasks such as organizing my files or updating my personal documents and reports.
We attend a lot of meetings and calls and respond to many client communications throughout our day that we tend to overschedule. That can hamper your productivity and affect your relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. It’s also important to allot ten to fifteen minutes of time in-between meetings to digest meeting discussions and action points and help you prepare for your next meeting.
Developing the habit of being clear about capabilities you are working on, tracking them, and scheduling time to work on them is very important as a salesperson. The three pillars of selling— knowledge, skill, and discipline— will only matter if you continue improving them and learning new things. Once you are able to put them in your schedule as part of the plan instead of “when you have time,” the easier it is to become a habit and help you become a high-performing salesperson.
About Jeev
A serial entrepreneur with a rich history of launching disruptive online businesses and taking them to the top, Jeev owns dozens of “go-to” reviews and rankings websites. Jeev has invested more than 20 years researching human behavior and how to leverage different sales methodologies to effectively influence decision-makers.To find out how Jeev can help you, visit jeevtrika.com.