Sales is hard. It runs on emotion–full of ups and downs. That is why having a daily plan is so important. It certainly won’t be everything you do, but it will be a foundation for sales growth. Make it simple. Work it.
- Build Daily Contact List: Query, by last contact date, your daily contact list. Some contact managers, like Kaleidico’s icoSales , allows you to automate call back periods for calls and emails allowing you to skip this step–making sales even lazier.
- Segment Contact List: Logically split your list into email contacts and phone contacts based on your preferred process, but certainly use a combination throughout your prospect phase. Then slice again by prospect, proposal, customer.
- Personal Brand Building: Post to your blog. I suggest posts about what you do and how you do it. Someone may want you to do it for them.
- Learning and Sharing: Cruise your RSS reader (make sure you have your Twitter listener too) for opportunities to learn more about potential customers. Comment and add value to the conversation.
- Follow-ups: Dive into your email. Certainly follow-up on any inquiries, but also send out status updates to any proposal phase customers and teasers updates to customers. This is a great way to activate a static sales pipeline.
- New Outreach: Using the same daily email list concept, blast out sales letters or emails to new contacts and prospects.
- Daily Call List: Now that you have email working for you in the background–make your calls and leave voicemails for call backs. Don’t forget to set expectations and schedule the next call back on every messages you leave.
- Take Calls: Always take the call! If at all possible, live and directly answer every call. It is such a shocker these days to immediately connect to a real person–that alone will get you sales.
This sales plan is simple. Consisting really of only three concepts: list building, brand building, and making contact. By spending only a few minutes a day preparing a contact list, leaving a few comments, and leveraging email you will be building a steady flow of inbound inquiries.
Enjoy making your sales day lazier.
If you have any questions–contact me: http://twitter.com/billrice
photo credit: kirainet
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Bill Rice is the founder of Kaleidico, a leader in contact management sales software. He is a frequent writer, speaker, and consultant on marketing and sales. He is passionate about helping organizations execute more profitable sale management strategies.
