Perfect Sales Week:

How to plan & execute your 40 hours.

Happy Wednesday to 11,281 SaaS sales professionals!

Today we talk about a topic that most of us struggle with:

time management and prioritization.

Let's go 👇

The Reason Why Most Reps Miss Quota

The Salesforce State Of Sales Report 2023 states: sellers spend only 28% of their time selling.

Imagine that! We only spend 11 out of 40 hours a week selling. That means either generating pipeline (prospecting) or progressing pipeline (customer meetings). That's less than 2.5 hours a day. What happens to the other 5.5 hours?

Some of it we spend on preparation and planning: account research, building lists, managing pipeline). Or on "other stuff" - internal meetings, trainings, CRM admin etc.

The problem is so evident: most sellers are distracted. They do not own their calendar. They do not protect their time. As a result, they're not tapping into their full selling potential.

How To Plan Your Week

I recommend that you work off a weekly plan. Build this plan based on your Quota Attainment Plan (QAP). Remember, your QAP tells you

• Daily input factors: calls, emails, follow ups ( prospecting related)
• Weekly output factors: client calls, qualifications, discovery meetings.

Your weekly plan should also follow your territory plan. Remember from last week: Big Bets, Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3 accounts.

You should have a weekly blocker to do your account research & list building. This falls under the category preparation & planning.

CTA: Write your plan for the week either on Monday mornings or on Friday afternoon for the following week. Spend around 30 minutes on this - it will pay off in hours of won productivity each week.

 

How To Protect Your Time

Now that you are in the clear around what activities you need to execute every week, you need to block out time.

I recommend that you spend

• 60% of your time (24 hours/week) on Selling activities. This includes pipeline generation (prospecting). It also includes pipeline progression. Follow ups, multithreading, preparing customer meetings, attending customer meetings.
• 20% of your time (8 hours/week) on Preparation & Planning. This includes account research, list building & reviewing opportunities in your pipeline.
• 20% of your time (8 hours a week) on everything else. Internal meetings, CRM admin, trainings, checking Slack, etc.

As a result you will spend 80% of your time on activities that move you towards results. The other 20% won't move the needle for you, but are a necessary part of the job. Good old Pareto Principle.

I also recommend that you color-code your calendar. For example: light green for customer meetings. Dark green for prospecting. Blue for preparation & planning. And red for internal meetings & admin.

A color-coded calendar is a great visual feedback loop. It tells you: am I spending the right amount of time on the right things?

Example of a color-coded sales calendar with specific instructions.

Last tip: write very specific instructions in your calendar blocks. Instead of "Prospecting" label it "Make 30 cold calls" and link your call list spreadsheet that you created the night before.

That way, you reduce any guessing or decision making fatigue.

That's it for today! I hope you enjoyed this newsletter.