5 Important Steps to Keeping Your Sales Process Moving Forward

January 9, 2010 by Bill Rice

I think it’s harder than ever to keep your sales process moving forward. There are so many innovative technologies that hold promise for sales. So many social media tools that help us connect and build relationships. Unfortunately all this scatters our attention and focus and working the sales pipeline.

Here are some time-tested ideas for returning your focus to forward sales movement.

1. Time blocking - This is an oldie, but goody. Blocking off certain times during the day for specific routines is a great way to block out distractions. The technique is as simple as blocking off brief increments (I recommend 30 minutes) of your day. During those blocks of dedicated time refuse to do anything, but the assigned task or routine.

This works exceptionally well for things you probably procrastinate on a regular basis–doing sales reporting, updating your CRM, cold calling, commenting on relevant blogs.

2. Jump start every day - This is one of my favorites and I think my biggest productivity lifter. There is so much time lost or wasted in starting up and winding down the day. I recommend improving the productivity of both those time blocks with a simple technique.

As you wind down (maybe even have a dedicated time block) review your day. Sales might review objections that stuck them, marketing may review analytics, writers might inventory assignments, developer might track problems that baffled them. Now turn those items into a fast start for tomorrow…

Create your “before email” morning routine. This might be a Web prospecting goal, competitor website research, a little searching in developer forums, have documents with titles (maybe outlines too) open on your computer. Jump starting the day is as simple as knowing what–exactly–you are going to do first.

3. Stop prioritizing - I think this is the number one killer of sales momentum. Prioritization is often a crutch. Something that we do when we lose confidence in our sales approach or are frustrated with our numbers. These challenges send us looking for the sure wins. Unfortunately, that is a myth. Avoid it.

4. Do the work - Prioritization and not doing the work often work hand in hand. There is no short-cut. You can’t cherry pick your way to success and you can’t grow rich while you sleep. You have to do the work. In sales or even as a freelancer that means making connections. You need to do the work–build the connections, nurture relationships, and build trust. There are no short-cuts, only distractions.

5. Understand your energy - This is a big one for me. Everyone seems to run on their own energy cycles. Mine is early morning, around 10 am, and then again around 2 pm. This when my mind seems to kick into high gear. Pay attention to when your energy kicks in and time block high impact tasks into those opportunities. Trying to plow through a low energy cycle is on a challenging task is a waste of time. Instead block in your Web browsing, Twittering, relationship calls–easy, no-brainer tasks.

Bonus tips (my favorites):

6. Work in short sprints - This tip is an important part of a lot of the other techniques. I find it a big productivity enhancer. Learn to work in short, well-defined, goal-oriented sprints. This makes it easier to stay focused and maximize energy cycles.

7. Set bite-size goals - In addition to your big goals, it’s important to have smaller objectives that get you to the big ones. This will help you stay focused and boost your confidence on a regular basis. Feeling productive is a huge motivator and aids focus.

8. Learn to relax - This is one I have just recently learned the value of–learning to shutdown. The always on and connected world makes this really hard. Wifi and iPhones keep us always tuned into our task list and emerging demands. This can keep you continually stressed and overwhelmed. You need time to recharge. It is impossible to run at 100% for 12-16 hours a day.

Shutdown at specific times–evenings, weekends. Spend the time enriching your life. Hang out with family and friends. Read, watch movies, experience travel. These activities not only relax us and get us ready for the next hard charging sales cycle, but they make us better at sales. These experiences make us better rounded and more interesting conversationalist–core skill for a good sales person.

What do you do to stay focused? How do your structure your sales day? What do you do to relax?

http://twitter.com/Caddyinfo Bruce Nunnally

I use set routines during 'time blocking' — and keep my normal routine laid out in order of execution. So if I know I need to do this, this, then that, the order I need to follow is how I keep these tasks presented when I come to the computer. The routine is ordered based on my current perceptions of most value added task; so if I run out of time to spend on it, I have spent the time I had available on what I think are my best priorities.

Can't agree more with time away — the best part of personal branding is personality — so you should have some rich things that you are doing away from your main game / dialog to bring to the discussion. If you feel your productivity is down, go spend time away and get replenished, then come back in a burst and proceed.
http://bettercloser.com Bill Rice

Bruce,

I think you bring up an important point: “these tasks presented when I come to the computer.” I think it is so important to have your day, tasks, or execution ready to go when we step into the office or up to our computer.

I'm curious are there any particular tools (software or manual) that you use to help you maintain this system?
http://bettercloser.com Bill Rice

Funny.

@SalesSigma on Twitter noticed my 5 important steps seems to have grown to 8. I guess it's a little harder to keep that sales process moving forward than I first thought.

Enjoy the 3 bonus tips. They're on the house.
JuanLulli

Thanks for sharing Bill. You know, there's a lot of clarity in simplicity. And often, lots of truth in simple time honored principles — such as those you've re-introduced and listed out and shared here with us. The magic — the battle — is in remaining faithful to these. And in keeping your sales process moving, especially in the era of the social web, it's very much KEY to needing to keep faithful to and disciplined on these habits. I recently re-read Dale Carnegie's book, How to Stop Worrying…and Start Achieving. Even then, when there were less of the overwhelming forces and speed of distraction we have today, he taught the need to live your day committing to fulfilling small goals and actions at specific times of the day as part of a philosophy he described as living according to “tight day compartments.” It's slightly contrarian, isn't, that the more tightly you comparmentalize your day according to scheduled activities-goals-actions, the more free and liberated you'll be. Still trying to figure it out, but thought I'll pass it on @juanlulli
http://twitter.com/Caddyinfo Bruce Nunnally

Primarily I am focused on accumulation or authoring and publishing automotive news of interest to myself & other Cadillac owners. I use a great deal of subjectivity on which items get included — otherwise I would do everything with bots & feeds. So step (0) is knowing your task — in this case my task is to generate new original content for my Caddyinfo Cadillac blog, as well as accumulate news of the day relevant to twitter and/or my Caddyinfo Cadillac Forum.

For article research I use simple tools & techniques, but I will list in case they are not obvious. Literally they are laid out in my email or browser in priority order so I don't need to think through my process each time. I am sorry this is running long for a comment, but not sure what is obvious and what is trivial.

I receive daily google email alerts on a couple of topics of interest to me (Cadillac CTS, Caddyinfo).
I use filing by folder to segregate emails upon receipt by topic based on specific filters.
I use bookmarks set for specific sites in order of priority to scan for relevant information — Cadillac, Competitors, Other Automotive, Other Interest. For this I directly scan 4-12 automotive forums & news sites. I spiral from Automotive news, to GM specific, to Cadillac specific, to Competitor Specific sites.
I use a specific 'live' google search phrase for Cadillac with filters for non-relevant to me items that may involve “Cadillac” such as the Bucs (Cadillac William) or Tiger Woods (Cadillac Escalade).
I follow up with a google blog search in some cases using the same phrasing.
I have specific search bookmarks for ebay, cars.com, autotrader.com, etc to monitor market and look for interesting examples that may be article ready.
I use tweetdeck for twitter, with columns set as searches for Cadillac, Caddyinfo, and specific other phrases of the day — right now for the NAIAS (Detroit Auto Show) related content. So right now my tweetdeck has 7 columns across with different content scans in each.
I use twitter tools, an add-on to wordpress on my blog to accumulate and republish my daily tweets as a blog entry overnight, and to echo blog entry titles as tweets. So besides the normal tweet value, I am always conscious that I am also tweeting 'to the record' so my readers can review my tweets in digest form on the blog.
The Forums have direct RSS feeds from GM News, Cadillac's blog, and Burnout Radio for news. They also have direct RSS feeds from ebay for specific Cadillac searches.
I get email updates from subscribed relevant video feeds on youtube so I can review to determine if they are of interest.
I use online/uptime monitoring for the forums that sends me % uptime by day and alerts if the site goes down.

Once I find content of interest, some articles go to twitter only, some become new Blog posts, (echo'd to the forum and twitter), some go to the Caddyinfo Cadillac forums for open discussion. Some topics of interest go only to my facebook page for side discussion.

My goal for a single 'scan' session is 30 minutes, with tweets and multiple forum posts as an output. Longer for a blog entry, but I tend to think about them over time and then write them when I am ready to comment on a topic. So an actual blog post article does not take much time to write, although it takes time to author.

I tend to scan my email first, but I respect your choice to do research pre-email. I get email alerts if the site is down, if a vendor has a question or change needed, or if a member has a question in the forum. I also scan & respond to forum questions, blog comments, and user admin as part of my email processing.
http://bettercloser.com Bill Rice

I love it. I'm sure the community appreciates it too. There are some real pearls in here. I like the combination of automated and manual, and how you carefully consider which to use.

As for email, I understand the difference. You are using email to bring you a lot of your publishing research. Mine is mostly faux emergencies or tasks. This illustrates that as with any advice you need to tailor it to your business objectives and scenarios.

Thanks for the great comment Bruce.
http://bettercloser.com Bill Rice

I love it. I'm sure the community appreciates it too. There are some real pearls in here. I like the combination of automated and manual, and how you carefully consider which to use.

As for email, I understand the difference. You are using email to bring you a lot of your publishing research. Mine is mostly faux emergencies or tasks. This illustrates that as with any advice you need to tailor it to your business objectives and scenarios.

Thanks for the great comment Bruce.
http://bettercloser.com Bill Rice

I love it. I'm sure the community appreciates it too. There are some real pearls in here. I like the combination of automated and manual, and how you carefully consider which to use.

As for email, I understand the difference. You are using email to bring you a lot of your publishing research. Mine is mostly faux emergencies or tasks. This illustrates that as with any advice you need to tailor it to your business objectives and scenarios.

Thanks for the great comment Bruce.