Look, I’m a busy guy. I run a sales training company, produce hours of content each week, run 15-20 weekly training calls, and single-handedly sell 7-figures worth of enterprise level training packages. But I also take my dog on long walks every day. I practice drums each morning for an hour. And my family life is full and fulfilling.
It’s true you don’t have time to do it ALL in sales. But if you prioritize your time for maximum productivity like I do, you can still be highly successful in B2B sales while living your best life. Here’s how.
1. Reverse Engineering
So much time is wasted on tasks that don’t do a damn thing to help you reach your goals. It’s a problem that comes from having the wrong perspective.
Instead of looking forwards to decide what needs to be done to reach your destination, look backwards. Imagine what you want, typically it’s going to be a financial goal. From there, start moving backwards in time. What do you have to do each year that’ll build up to that goal? What about each month? Each day?
Say you want to earn an extra $50k this year. Let’s start there. $50k in commissions equals an extra 30 closed deals. For every closed deal, there are 24 discovery calls that don’t work out. Which means you need 750 discovery calls in a year or about 190 per quarter, 63 per month, and around 15 per week.
And with those numbers in mind, you’ve got EXACTLY the work you need to do each day to reach your goal.
2. Time Blocking
Next up is time blocking.
This is one of my favorites. I’ve even talked about it before.
Essentially, you need to start scheduling your important tasks. Don’t just have a mental to-do list that you’re crossing off throughout the day. Instead, put all the tasks you need to have done into your calendar.
But here’s the most important part—you have to stick to those times. Don’t spend a second more or a second less on the tasks that you schedule. If you waver even just a little from those scheduled times, tasks will start to bleed over into others. And the entire system falls apart.
So schedule it. And stick to it like hell.
3. Paper To-Do
Keeping a paper list with you at all times makes it easy to add to it and cross things out throughout the day, no matter where you are.
Feel free to plug them all into a digital list at the end of the day to keep things organized. I do the same thing with the app Things on iOS.
But there’s something so viscerally satisfying about crossing tasks off one by one.
4. Phone Pruning
This one’s going to hurt. But trust me, it’s worth it.
Get rid of the distractions on your phone. Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn even. If you’re spending non-work time on it, nix it. Now, there are some features out there that make it 10X easier to concentrate while at work. I use the Focus feature on iOS all the time.
But eliminating ANY temptation whatsoever is a powerful way to keep your eye on the ball at all times.
5. The Pomodoro Technique
This technique is surprisingly effective for how simple it really is. Next time you’ve got a task you don’t want to be doing, say cold calling or updating your CRM, commit yourself to it for 25 minutes. That’s it. And then schedule a five minute break.
When you structure your entire day with this technique, something pretty amazing happens—you stop wanting to stop.
I’ve found the hardest thing for me is simply getting started on a task. After that part’s over, my momentum usually just keeps me going and going.
With this technique, you’re making the biggest barrier (getting started) easier to overcome. After all, it’s just 25 minutes!
6. Parkinson’s Law
I like this one a lot because it’s so unintuitive. Parkinson’s Law basically states that the time it takes to finish a task depends on how much time you allot to doing it.
So if you’re giving yourself three hours to perform some menial task that should only take one hour, it’s still going to take three hours to do.
The moral of the story here is that you should experiment with harsher self-imposed deadlines. Sure what you produce might not be quite as polished, but you’ve now bought yourself time to polish and refine the finished product, rather than being in a rush to finish it last minute.
7. Continuous Structure
Technique seven, continuous structure.
How often do you find yourself struggling to be productive after a lazy weekend? All the time, right?
Well the problem is, you’ve only got one brain. And when your habits and your thoughts are one way at the office and the complete opposite at home, making the switch between the two can be damn difficult.
So instead of trying to keep the two separate, try using the same techniques in both.
If you find for example that time blocking is doing wonders in the office, try doing it for date night with your partner each week. Fight to protect it like you would a massive client meeting.
You may be surprised how well these techniques work in both worlds.
8. The Power of “No”
And eight, the power of no.
Stop being so nice. Just stop it. Agreeing to every demand, every unreasonable meeting time, every covering of someone else’s blunder—it’s sucking the energy right out of you. Even worse, it’s letting colleagues, clients, and yes, bosses, know that it’s 100% a-okay to walk all over you.
Listen, you’ve only got one life. And if you want to make your goal omelet, you’re gonna have to break a few eggs.
Start getting comfortable with saying no more often. Saying “no” gives clear boundaries. It stops clients walking all over you. And saying it just a few times a day will free up hours and hours of time each week.
Time you can spend on more important things like I don’t know, say doing what you want.
So say no. There’s no way you’ll regret it.
How much you can get done each day comes down to time management. And if you want to get better at using your time more wisely, use these eight techniques…
