Sales Rep: ‘‘Can you coach me, my calls, emails etc aren’t working’’.

Me: ‘‘Could you show me your calendar’’.

Sales Rep: ‘‘Why?’’

Me: ‘‘Outbound success starts with how you set up your calendar’’.

In this newsletter, I will show you how I set-up sales reps calendars for success with Outbound.

Let’s dive in.

How to Manage Your Calendar (like a Pro):

Every sales rep I know prioritises activity over everything else.

Why? Because KPIs tell them to do that. This translates into something like this in calendars:

Reps and managers then think their reps time is ‘'managed’’. The reps execute (sometimes) and then repeat everyday until they’re red in the face.

But have you ever wondered why this so rarely works? Or why it feels so painful every time you get to one of these blocks?

The answer is simple; you’ve lost sight of what the block stands for. It’s not to make some calls for an hour.

It’s to book meetings with targets that are closable so the business you work for wins.

Simply; it’s not to do some activity to say you’ve worked hard on a dashboard. That’s worthless.

Instead, you need to be making sure every single one of your activities is to the MOST likely to help you book a meeting.

But how does your calendar come into that?

Well, if time is your most important currency, your calendar is how you plan to spend that currency.

Think of it as your own personal financial planner. Minutes are your money.

And when it comes to Outbound success you need a plan for how you spend that time to get the best returns.

Ask yourself this:

Where do I invest my time? Aka which accounts and prospects deserve my investment?What actions should I take to get a return? Aka what activity will get me the best return on my time investment?When should I review the performance of my activities and whether they’ve got me a return?

Here is how I do it:

Step 1: I add 1 & 3 to my calendar first.

Everyday I invest 30-60 minutes creating my list of targets for the following day.

Why? Because when I come in the next day I know exactly who I will be targeting and why I will be spending time on them.

I also spend 30-60 minutes reviewing my performance from the previous weeks activity.

After all, an Olympic swimmer wouldn't swim without timing themselves and measuring performance. So, why should you?

I aim to figure out:

• Whats working?

• What isn’t working?

• What should I test this week?

• What resource/help do I need?

Step 2: Once I have done this do I know what worked so I can tweak my activity for the week ahead to do more of whatever that thing is.

Then I execute, really really hard.

Conclusion:

Most reps waste a lot of their time on activities that have no benefit. By taking control of your calendar and how you invest your time your returns can be infinite.

I hope its helps you get more results.

Cheers, Chris