Time Management = $150k/year or more!

Have you ever felt like the picture below? Or tried to emulate the meaning?

• Balancing work tasks,

• Trying to manage time,

• And be the Mr. (or Mrs.) fix-it?

• -Not Pictured- Parent duties, time for your spouse, friends, family, etc.

My wife and I are celebrating our little man, Zayden, turning 1 this week! What we thought was ‘no big deal’ when his older sister arrived 4 years ago; having our second child literally split my wife and I into MAN COVERAGE. No more ZONE BLOCKING, or PREVENT DEFENSE.

And that included things like evening and weekend activities!

Not news to any of you that have two (or more!) of your own, but it’s always a new and enlightening time for parents when they add to their family.

We are both career-oriented professionals, so balancing the young family with our roles and responsibilities has taken a year to figure out.

Through it all, I’ve been able to maintain my Time Management formula that has brought me years of SALES, management, and currently, executive leadership success.

Both in my goal achievements … and in my bank account.

Let’s look under the hood!

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Have a strategy, schedule appropriately, and work the plan.

Did you see this tweet recently on my Twitter feed? It was meant to be an oversimplification of the idea that preparing for the next day/week will set you up for success.

Now, the simplicity of the message isn’t wrong. There’s simply more to the formula that’s hidden a few layers down.

Here is how I structure my work week to maximize my time while producing the results and successes that I EXPECT OF MYSELF.

^{Being conscience of “prime selling hours.”}

If you work in a direct SALES role, you need to adopt the idea that there are only so many prime selling hours per week. It’s the days that your prospect or client meetings should take place. You shouldn’t be doing anything else with your time outside of face-to-face meetings, or scheduling new meetings for the following week(s).

• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Simply put, the week has officially started (Monday is over) yet it’s certainly not over (Friday isn’t here) yet.

If you’re in a Management or Leadership position, Tuesday - Thursday should be scheduled similarly, with your time being focused on partnership or stakeholder relationships.

• Monday, Friday

SALES reps, leave your strategic follow-ups, proposal and pricing generation, client research, or CRM updates for Mondays and Fridays.

Managers and Leaders, have your 1 on 1s on these days. They can be great for summarizing the week (Fridays) or kicking off the week (Mondays) with helpful planning and guidance from your vantage point and experience. Schedule any other team meetings or admin responsibilities for those on your teams, here.

^{Run two, set two.}

During your prime selling days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) you need to learn a pace that allows you to run at least two (2) new prospect meetings per prime selling day while working to set up two (2) new prospect meetings for the following week(s).

This math will have you running six (6) new prospect meetings each week, with room to schedule and book six (6) new prospect meetings for the following week(s).

Depending upon your industry, product/service or other, six (6) new prospect meetings might not be enough to achieve your goals, OR make the type of income that you want. It also might not be realistic, too. Adjust up or down, but don’t lose sight of what it means to operate within the prime selling days for all prospect and customer-facing efforts.

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^{Focus Time.}

There are two sides to the concept of ‘focus time.’

• Scheduling time within your day/calendar for you time.

  • To think strategically (and document)

  • To experiment with previous strategic thoughts/ideas

- AND -

• Scheduling time within your day/calendar for work/productive time.

  • To complete a proposal and pricing

  • To respond to emails and other communications

I’ve found that my best ‘focus time’ comes in either one-hour or two-hour intervals, depending upon the type.

• one-hour block = Strategic work

• two-hour block = Proposals and/or communications

^{Inbox back to zero.}

Each and every day, before I turn off my computer, I try like heck to get my inbox back down to zero emails. For me, this accomplishes two things:

• It tells me that I’ve either a) moved an email into a saved folder

• I’ve responded to the original email, so I can either delete (I do this more often) or move the email into a saved folder

I equate this idea to waking up to a dirty house, or maybe it’s a chaotic kitchen. It’s harder to get “into” the swing of thing and motivated by the new day if you’re still wiping down the counters from last night’s chicken enchiladas. Know what I mean?

Try your best to navigate to zero emails whenever your work day ends.

PRO TIP: There’s a school of thought that says, don’t respond to emails in the evening. Or if you do, schedule them to auto-send first thing in the morning. Why? Because who wants to get your emails at 10p, or, have to go back to yesterday’s emails tomorrow morning, to whomever you’re communicating with.

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The moral of the story? Time is the one asset that we all own the same amount of. The best SALES reps are the best simply because they use their time more efficiently than others. They’re smart with the “what” and “where.”

They understand that SALES = Effective Communication. And Effective Communication = When, How, and Why you’re connecting.

And obviously the “who” is your prospect or customer.

Do you want to maximize your income from your SALES job? Then master time management.

Sales Tweets of The Week!

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