7 Productivity Improvements You Can Implement Immediately and for Free After our Sales Training Workshops
The buzz of excitement and motivation coming from a successful sales training workshop is the perfect catalyst to implement positive change in a sales department.
Here are 7 straightforward (and free!) improvements you can make right away after our sales training workshops to maximize your productivity.
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Time blocking
A key to productivity is time management. The concept of time blocking has to do with analyzing the tasks to be completed for a particular day and setting up several “blocks” of time where only those tasks are worked.
A simple time blocking schedule for a sales person could look like this:
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devote morning hours to strictly sales calls
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one hour after lunch for emails
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two hours after that for dealing with active customers
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the final two hours for updating the CRM, social media prospecting, and planning presentations for the next day
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Focusing tools
Some salespeople, even if they time block, find that they violate the schedules they have established for themselves. In this case, it may help to use a tool to help maintain focus.
The Pomodoro technique (so named for the tomato looking timers used to time focus sessions) suggest that by using smaller, more concentrated focus sessions punctuated by many small breaks, you can actually get more done and more effectively with less brain fatigue.
Try working in 25-minute uninterrupted bursts, with a 5-minute break where you get up and leave your desk. Return for another 25-minute session and 5-minute break. Repeat this sequence, and you will have accomplished two hours of very focused production – more than many salespeople do in a day!
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Outsource the menial tasks
Free up valuable selling time by delegating tasks that are keeping your eye off the prize to freelancers, like those on Upwork or a similar service.
Think about how much you can make an hour when you are closing deals. That is how much it is costing you when you update spreadsheets for hours on end or file paperwork. You will find that it is usually a lot more cost effective to pay someone else to do these things.
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Narrow down your accounts
As a salesperson, don’t try to chase every lead under the sun. Instead, narrow things down to the most fruitful, likeliest-to-close accounts. How to determine this? You’ll have to figure this out for your own business, but here are some ideas for separating the wheat from the chaff:
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Have they visited your website or called in to inquire in the past six months?
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Do you have an inside coach you can use to make an introduction?
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Do you have a competitive advantage over their current supplier, such as lower price or better warranty?
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Have they done business with you in the past?
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Have they hired a new purchasing manager, ready to try new things?
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Do they substantially match the profile of your existing top accounts?
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Formalize your sales process
At our business sales training workshops, we teach students that establishing formal, written sales processes standardizes things and greatly increases efficiency.
You can still be creative after adopting a formal sales process. In fact, you might find that since you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you sell you can focus on the creative and relationship aspects of the job.
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Shorten communications
With all of the electronic communications we issue on a daily basis, it seems a natural place to search for a productivity boost in this area. And there is one: write less.
Personalities like Guy Kawasaki have popularized sites such as five.sentenc.es, and it serves as a good rule of thumb for most emails. It really is the right size for most communications, and your clients and business partners will appreciate you getting to the point.
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Do your research
Knowing what makes your prospect tick really speeds up the sales cycle.
Social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as Google searches, make it a simple affair to look up prospective customers and get a sense of whether they are worth pursuing and how best to approach them.
These are just some of the ways to improve productivity and keep that sales training workshop boost in productivity going all year long.
