Welcome back to our 5-point plan to make more hours in the day.
You can refer to part one for the first two points in case you missed them.
So far, we have established the three stages of focus that are the foundation for all your actions and started to prioritize incoming and ongoing tasks when checking against our focus areas.
Now, we move our attention to planning, a step that can often be overlooked in the scramble to just get started. Get ready to dismantle your existing habits to work smarter.
Point 3 – Plan.
Don’t wing it each day and spend your nights wondering where the time went. Get organized and feel as if you have accomplished a lot EVERY DAY.
Now you have a focus on your actions and can easily prioritize your incoming workload you are ready to get started, right? Wrong.
You need a plan to help you get through all the work ahead of you. Start with the most important tasks you have identified and then fit in less important tasks. This way you can make progress every day and prevent getting side-tracked.
Key questions to ask yourself when creating your work plan include:
When should I do my telephone prospecting?
- When are my prospects in the office and available to talk to me?
- Is this a time or a certain day of the week?
- Is this different for prospects at different stages of the pipeline?
What is the best time for my prospects to receive emails from me?
- When are my prospects available to properly read the email?
- Is this a time or a certain day of the week to send emails?
- Is this different for prospects at different stages of the pipeline?
Are there any upcoming industry events to plan into my schedule?
- Do I need support for these from other departments?
Where can I research my prospects and their challenges?
- Do you need additional IT support to do this?
- Do you need additional funding to access journals, digital print resources?
Not sure of the answers to these? Don’t guess! Why not ask your prospects directly and build a picture of the best times to contact prospects in each industry?
Don’t forget to share this knowledge with your team!
Download a copy here: my-plan
As part of your planning you need to identify where your prospects are in their journey through your sales pipeline.
When you know what stage a prospect is at you can deliver relevant messaging and supporting documentation to them to encourage them to move further along the pipe towards being a lead and eventually a customer.
Point 4 – Do.
It may seem obvious, but you need to put all of this into action. You can have the best of intentions and then get diverted with an ‘urgent task’ that isn’t your responsibility to do. Your focus points and plan will help you explain your priorities to people who ask for your help.
Another common mistake is to try and block out large periods of time for single tasks. No one day will ever be effectively siloed to do one task, give that dream up! There will always be an urgent task*, a meeting you get dragged into or just something!
*one you do need to do.
If you split your day up into small time chunks to tackle different issues you are less likely to get knocked off course and feel like your whole day has been hijacked.
Don’t get disheartened if your daily plan isn’t getting great results at first. Persevere with the plan you have devised and try to find out what is working and not working as you go through your day.
It may be very tempting to start moving your plan around ‘as you go’ but this will not give you enough information to see what the problem holding you back from getting that all-important extra selling time.
Read our next article ‘5 point plan to make more hours in the day Pt.3’ to continue to streamline your work day to sell more.
