Five Questions for Sales Productivity

Everyone I know is busy. Ask a friend or family member, “How have you been?” and the answer, “Busy!” is a common response. Even my retired friends complain about not having enough time to get to everything they want to accomplish. OMG, people, you’re retired! Most salespeople are busy, too, but very few are productive. There’s a difference.

Busy salespeople are a blur of motion. They talk fast and walk fast. They listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed. They work late to catch up and sneak in on a weekend to get organized. Busy salespeople talk about their long work week as if it is something to be proud of. “I’m just doing what it takes to be successful,” they tell themselves. But there is another, better way to get there.

Productive salespeople are calmer. They have focus, intent, and discipline. They plan. They prepare. They follow through. They work hard, too, but you probably won’t see them in the office at crazy hours, running around like their hair is on fire. In fact, it is not unusual to see a productive rep having a casual conversation with someone in the office or walking out the door mid-afternoon to do something other than to make sales calls.

Chances are, you are busy, too. But if you are looking to achieve the goal of selling more in less time; if you want to move from busy to productive; if you want to be home in time to mow your lawn while it’s still light out, you need to adopt the weekly habits that top-performing reps follow to stay sharp and lead the sales leaderboard.

At week’s end, before they push back from their desk, gather their things, and head home, productive reps ask themselves five questions. It’s a way to self-check, run a quick litmus test for sales activity, look back, look forward, and set themselves up for future success:

1| “Do I have enough opportunities going on right now?” In order to have a strong wave of sales, you need a strong list of opportunities. These are projects that are underway but are not yet entered orders. That’s not to say all opportunities are sure to turn into sales. Some are weak, like when a prospect tells you to “Check in with me in a couple of months.” Others are much more likely to convert, such as a new order from an existing account. Any time sales activities beget a potential job, it goes onto the spreadsheet with the others. By asking this question, you’ll know if you need to get out and beat the bushes or throttle back a bit … for now.

2| “What are my top three activity goals for the week ahead?” Have you ever heard the literary expression, “He flung himself upon a horse and rode off in all directions”? It’s a pretty good description of how the average salesperson approaches their sales day: Unorganized and erratic. Arriving at work, they are more likely to do their “want to” tasks before they do their, “have to” tasks. Makes sense. They’re probably more fun. But treating all entries on a task list equally is a mistake. What if you established three sales activity goals instead? For example:

• “Every day next week, I will call two customers and make eight prospecting calls.”
• “I will identify and research five big fish accounts.”
• “I will watch YouTube videos to learn about how AI can help me do my job.”

Notice each goal is reasonable, quantifiable, and achievable. And understand, this is a five-day plan, not a 365 day New Year’s Resolution. So, if you fail, big deal. Rethink, reload, and try, try again. Plus, “sales activity” can be defined in countless ways, making it possible to change them up on a weekly basis to keep it interesting. Setting and achieving weekly sales activity goals is a game of leap frog that will move you further, faster.

3| “Do I have a new business plan for next week?” Regardless of any other plans or priorities, it is imperative to have new business development as part of your to-do list. Will it be selling more to existing customers? Will you solicit new clients? Will you “go vertical” and focus on colleges, banks, or hospitals? It is dangerously easy to let a week go without making any efforts to generate new business. The best way to avoid that is to make a solid plan AND ask this question as a way of ensuring it happens.

4| “Did I start every day this week with a plan of action?” After all is said and done, the most important step in productivity is preparation. Do nothing more than end today with a plan for tomorrow and you will have done something 90% of busy salespeople fail to do, but 100% of the productive ones never fail to do.

5| “Did I achieve my three sales activities goals this past week?” This question is about accountability, but you are not checking in with a manager or sales coach, you are reporting to that person in the mirror. If the answer is, “yes,” congratulate yourself. Take a minute to honor the achievement. If the answer is, “no,” think about why that is. Were the goals too lofty? Did you chase too many squirrels? Was it procrastination? Evaluation is important if the goal is to improve.

Moving from busy to productive is a process. Mistakes will be made. Just take it one week at a time. Tweak each aspect. Think about what is working and what isn’t. You might find yourself to be terrible at self-accountability. Okay, then ask someone to serve as an accountability buddy. Chances are, they need the help, too. Or maybe your preparation plans turned out to be occasional instead of daily. Fine. If you managed to start out two days with a plan last week, shoot for three next week. The point is to grow into a better version of your productive self.

Get this system down and you will have built a process for managing your sales tasks and activities such that you take a step forward. It’s not perfect — there is still the quality of those tasks to talk about — but the answers to these five questions asked before quitting time on Friday will help you assess your current sales opportunities, prepare you for the week ahead, evaluate the week just passed, and improve your chances of being that calm, top-of-the-leaderboard sales rep heading out the door early to do something other than make calls. Wink, wink.