The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

This is the last video of the three-part series on time management. In the first video, I touched on how to identify and eliminate distractions that are getting in the way of your productivity. In the second video, I talked about ways you can prioritize and organize all of the various tasks and goals that you need to accomplish—both at work and at home—to create that work-life balance. 

Today, I'm going to talk more about what Hubspot says takes up 13 hours of our week on average: EMAIL. 

We need email. It's not like we can do without it altogether. It's essential in our business communication, and many of us rely on it for our personal communications as well. So, what can you do to help minimize distractions by email alone to help you with time management?

- MOTIVATION -

"SUCCESS IS WALKING FROM FAILURE TO FAILURE WITH NO LOSS OF ENTHUSIASM"

-WINSTON CHURCHILL

- AROUND THE WEB -

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How a Multi-Channel Approach to Prospecting Influenced 73% of our Sales Pipeline — Hubspot

We all have needs, and those needs drive us to spend time and money addressing them. In sales, we count on the needs of our prospects and clients to motivate them to buy. For decades, it has been a good sales process to focus on client needs. Needs are good, but they are not the complete picture.

Learning about client needs used to set the better salespeople apart from the package pushers.

On a personal level, we don’t focus on our needs to solve a problem. We focus on what we want. When we’re hungry, we focus on getting food, when we’re tired we focus on getting some sleep, and if we need to hit a goal this quarter, we focus on getting the next sale.

Selling a new target account is not an easy task. Many things have to fall in place—here’s a list of some of the obstacles:

• Selecting a quality prospect.
• Developing the trust of the prospect.
• Getting an appointment.
• Conducting a needs analysis that leads to an opportunity (and cash).
• Developing a solution robust enough to get results, yet not so large it scares away the prospect.
• Overcoming objections.
• Closing the deal! 

Getting a renewal from a new customer starts with getting results on the initial campaign, and using a campaign launch brief will set you up to increase your renewals before your clients’ campaigns even kick off.

Today, I'm sharing part 2 of this 3-part series on time management. The first topic I touched on was distractions and helping to identify your own distractions to minimize those that are costing you the most productivity in the workplace.

Today, I want to talk about organization, and primarily, prioritization, and how this can benefit you both at home and at work. 

At The Center for Sales Strategy, LeadG2, and Up Your Culture, we are firm believers in work-life balance. It's extremely important to the health of the organization and to your health as an individual contributor to the organization. It benefits you to maintain that work-life balance, and make sure you're creating that organization and prioritization on both sides of the equation.

- MOTIVATION -

"SUCCESS IS WALKING FROM FAILURE TO FAILURE WITH NO LOSS OF ENTHUSIASM"

-WINSTON CHURCHILL

- AROUND THE WEB -

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The 5 Quota-Killing Mistakes Only Experienced Salespeople Make — Hubspot

Frustration sets in when you look at all the pending business you have sitting in your sales funnel and realize that a good portion of it has been there for weeks! Those prospects you were sure were going to sign off on your proposal right away are instead sharing reasons why they’re not ready or telling you they need more time to think it over. You know that with every week that passes, the chances that any of them will turn into a sale diminishes greatly and you’re kicking yourself because you are now reduced to emailing your prospect with the subject line "Checking in" since you really have no other options left.

Are you experiencing this uncomfortable, bloated feeling right now?

That bloated pipeline isn’t just uncomfortable . . . it’s frustrating and, ultimately, very expensive. Yes, it can sometimes feel rewarding to say you have “a lot out there,” but we all know that pending business is only good if it ends up closing. 

Spoiler alert: This is not an article on how to close your pending deals. It’s way more valuable than that. 

The problem is not in the proposal or the funnel, but rather with the process.

I spend a lot of time giving pre-hire feedback to managers about candidates. We discuss managing strengths and coaching weaknesses. We talk about how strengths and weaknesses can work together or can tug in opposite directions. 

At the end of each conversation, it's my sincere hope that the hiring manager has a well-rounded view of their candidate and how they will “fit” or “don't fit” in a position. But there is another question that needs to be asked. Does the candidate also fit the manager? 

A lot of salespeople and managers that I talk to on a regular basis often seek advice on time management and how they can better manage their time.

The truth is... it really depends. It varies depending on you, your individual style, your talents, and the way you like to process things. 

In this 3-part series, I'm going to share various time management tips and things to consider based on your style and what will work for you.

Today, I'm touching on is distractions. 

- MOTIVATION -

"ALL PROGRESS TAKES PLACE OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE"

-MICHAEL JOHN BOBAK

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Conducting Killer Pipeline Reviews Your Salespeople Will Thank You For — Sales Hacker