Identify & Eliminate Time Draculas. Become More Selfishly-Productive. Drive More Results.
Feb 3, 2025
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The discussion kicks off with the importance of focusing on goal-oriented activities, with a strong push for time-blocking to enhance productivity. Listeners learn about 'Time Draculas'—those non-revenue tasks that drain energy and distract salespeople from closing deals. The conversation emphasizes the three key actions: Create, Advance, and Close. A practical success story highlights how one salesperson reclaimed valuable time and boosted sales by tackling a major Time Dracula. Strategies for effective time management among sales leaders are also discussed.
Sales professionals must identify and eliminate 'Time Draculas' to focus on essential activities that drive revenue growth.
Effective time-blocking and prioritizing core sales tasks can significantly enhance productivity and improve overall sales performance.
Deep dives
The Importance of Goal-Achieving Activities
Many salespeople struggle to achieve their optimal results due to their focus on tension-relieving tasks rather than goal-achieving activities. This tendency often leads them to fill their schedules with activities that give them the illusion of productivity while neglecting their primary responsibilities in sales. Three core sales activities—creating, advancing, and closing opportunities—are essential for driving revenue growth. When sales professionals allocate more time to these critical actions, their effectiveness and results will significantly improve.
The Role of Calendar Management
Effective calendar management and time blocking are crucial for sales professionals to maintain focus on high-value tasks that drive results. By structure their week around specific revenue-generating activities, salespeople can ensure they dedicate sufficient time to creating, advancing, and closing deals. This proactive approach not only prevents distractions but also fosters a disciplined routine that leads to higher productivity. Success in sales lies not in busyness, but in truly impactful time management that aligns with clear business goals.
Identifying and Eliminating Time Draculas
Salespeople often fall victim to 'time Draculas,' which are non-revenue generating activities that consume their time and energy without delivering results. These distractions can come from excessive email management, service issues, and involvement in customer success tasks that detract from their primary job of generating new business. Recognizing and addressing these persistent time drains is imperative for sales professionals striving to boost their performance. By focusing on core sales tasks and delegating or reallocating time spent on low-value tasks, salespeople can reclaim their productivity and drive better outcomes.
The Transformation Through Selfish Productivity
Adopting a mindset of 'selfish productivity' allows sales professionals to prioritize their time effectively and focus on activities that directly contribute to sales success. This involves setting clear boundaries around their calendars, learning to say no to non-essential commitments, and embracing the discipline of blocking out time for high-payoff tasks. An illustrative example from a salesperson named Nathan showcases how changing his voicemail greeting drastically reduced the time he spent on non-revenue generating support tasks, leading to noticeable improvements in his sales performance. Ultimately, fostering a culture of selfishly productive behaviors within sales teams can enhance overall effectiveness and contribute to more successful outcomes.
In this first episode of 2025, Mike is simple and straight forward tackling one of the biggest obstacles to sales success that he is currently seeing — sales managers, salespeople, and entire sales teams who have lost sight of their primary job and lost focus on WINNING NEW SALES!
Too many sellers and leaders are engaging in tension-relieving activities instead of goal-achieving activities. They’re busy but not productive. They’re distracted by lower-payoff tasks and not prioritizing the only three sales verbs that matter — Create. Advance. Close.
Listen in for a refresher on the power of time-blocking high-payoff activities and the importance of identifying and eliminating “Time Draculas” — those non-revenue generating, lower-value activities that suck an exorbitant amount of sellers’ time and energy and keep them from building pipeline and closing deals.
Mike concludes the episode with a helpful, practical example of a salesperson who experienced a major breakthrough simply by identifying and addressing one massive Time Dracula that was stealing his selling time.