Four Life Hacks That Make Sales People More Productive

There are a lot of ways people can improve sales effectiveness, from new sales playbooks to better funnel management. Some things are just simple small changes that have an outsized impact on results. Here are four quick things sales people can do to improve sales productivity.

Quit Email
Study after study shows that multi-tasking kills productivity, and is even lowering your IQ. If you’re constantly checking your email to see if that customer responded, you’re lowering your effectiveness. Creating a presentation or responding to an RFP will take longer and the end product will be worse if you do it in three minute chunks between email reviews.
First, turn off the notice that pops up in the corner every time an email arrives. Then, make it a point to block time for tasks that need real concentration.

Leave A To Do List For Yourself At The End Of The Day
Many people come into work without having a clear plan of what they need to get done that day. They use their email inbox as an organizer, and respond to what they find there. This is a great way to respond to what’s urgent, but a terrible way to focus on what else is important. Your inbox will rarely tell you what you need to do to sell more. If your day starts in reaction driven mode based on who emailed you, then you’re going to spend a lot of time on less important things.

At the end of the day, when things have slowed down, take a few minutes to review what you’re working on, and make a list of important tasks that you want to spend time on the next day in order to build the sales pipeline, advance opportunities, and close deals.

Eat That Frog
This is from a book by Brian Tracy and basically means, “do the hard, unpleasant things you don’t want to do but have to do first.” If you know you need to spend an hour cleaning up contacts in Salesforce or cold calling, it’s better to just do it than procrastinate and have it hang over your head for the day. People feel better and more productive when they accomplish something difficult, so get that good feeling early in the day. Eat that frog.

Don’t Work When Others Aren’t Working
Sales is about connecting with other people. When many people are on vacation (like the 4th of July week or Thanksgiving week), you’re going to be wasting a lot of energy and experiencing a lot of frustration. When your prospects are back and ready to buy, you’ll be burned out. People need time off to recharge. Take advantage of these breaks to clear your head and build your energy.