Schedule is your lifeline. It’s a sales person’s most valuable resource (besides energy). It’s even more important for sales leaders because you add more roles to your title as you move up.
In sales, the more effective you are with your time, the more people you see. The more people you see the more sales you make.
The more intentional you are with your time as a sales leader, the more impact you have. It’s less about the amount of hours you work and more about the value per hour you commit to. Working smarter becomes critical to the bottom line. It brings in more revenue, and you get that exponential growth you want, instead of the linear growth, maintenance, or worse – loss.
Your dreams and goals won’t happen unless you schedule them in. It’s not enough to “know” what needs to get done. You have to do it. Consistently. The important work and not just the urgent and “immediate results.” When you’re seeing results and when you aren’t seeing the results yet. This is important not only when you’re motivated, but when you don’t feel like doing it.
Plan emotionally, and execute rationally.
This becomes harder and harder to do as you become a sales leader because everything can feel like it has to get done. By YOU. When you’re in sales, it’s easier to set a schedule because you only have a few focus points. Your job is to sell. When you’re also leading a team, people can pull you into urgent matters that don’t matter to the long haul. My advice is to not let someone else’s anxiety determine your activity. Deciding where you’ll spend your time as a sales leader trips most emerging sales leaders up.
When you’re a leader, it becomes more complicated. Leaders get promoted because they know how to execute. The hard part is choosing where to spend your time. Sales – do what’s urgent. Sales leadership – do what’s important. Sales leaders’ schedules are about scheduling and executing what’s important – in the short-term and long-term. But there is a lot you COULD do! How on earth do you remember to do it all? To add it to your already packed schedule?!
You have to prioritize every day, every week, what your business needs you to do. Not what you want to do or like to do, but what your business needs you to do. Based off of the goals you set, and the controllable metrics that it takes you to reach those goals. If you’re ahead of your goal, you can run up the score, or choose to spend your time somewhere else. If you’re behind, you have to decide how to get caught up.
When you show your team how to work an effective schedule, they in turn do the same. Executing a smart schedule makes you look smarter as a leader. It helps you achieve more in less time. It frees up time. You see around corners and deal with problems sooner because you’re looking for them. You’re proactive and not reactive.
And although you might know the schedule YOU need to create, not everyone on your team knows how to do the same. Not everyone knows how to focus on each time block. They don’t may not have the discipline to connect their scheduled activity to what THEIR business needs them to do. People need direction. This is to help YOU create a sales leader’s schedule AND be able to help your team create winning schedules themselves.
I’ve developed a one-page outline that sales leaders use weekly to determine their schedule. It takes about an hour to plan out, but it’s designed so that the important things don’t get missed. Here are a few of the questions on the Sales Leader Weekly Success Planner:
- What are your wins and lessons from last week?
- What are the top 3 priorities for this week?
- Why are they important?
- What happens if you don’t achieve them?
- Who on the team can contribute to the KPIs?
If you would like the whole planner to help you focus, email me at risewithrebecca@gmail.com with the subject “Sales Leader Weekly Success Planner” and I’ll get it to your inbox.
We want to do the things that matter for the reasons that matter with the people that matter in a way that matters.
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