Planning and Goal Setting

CHAPTER 3

Introduction

Effective time management is critical to a salesperson’s success. However, many new sellers get lost in unproductive tasks that distract from hitting their selling targets. This chapter covers the basics of time management, including planning and goal setting.

• Differentiate between the essential and nonessential tasks that salespeople encounter
• Perform weekly and daily planning sessions
• Identify basic time management tools
• Set effective goals using the SMART method

Learning Objectives and Agenda

SECTION 1

The Critical Role of Planning

Why is planning important?

• What benefits of planning have you seen in your own life?

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• How does your personal productivity increase when you plan out your day or week?

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• How does taking the extra time to plan actually increase the amount of time you have to be productive?

Managing a salesperson’s time

According to Xactly, a software company, only 39% of a sales professional's time is spent actually selling.

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A salesperson’s activities can be broken into three groups:

• Sales-related activities: Active selling tasks that help drive revenue growth.
• Essential administrative tasks: Administrative tasks needed to support sales activities.
• Non-essential administrative tasks: Tasks that are not essential to sales efforts.

Various salesperson’s tasks

Sales-related activities: Active selling tasks that help drive revenue growth.

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• Prospecting
• Meeting with prospects
• Follow up meetings
• Discovery meetings
• Demonstrations
• Reviewing proposals and closing meetings
• Meeting with clients

Various salesperson’s tasks (cont.)

Essential Administrative Tasks: Administrative tasks need to support sales activities.

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• Updating customer reports (i.e., CRM)
• Emails to current customers
• Creating proposals
• Creating leads lists
• Researching prospects

Various salesperson’s tasks (cont.)

Non-essential Administrative Tasks: Tasks that are not essential to sales efforts.

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• Technical product issues
• Creating internal reports
• Cleaning out email inbox
• Creating slides
• Company meetings

Managing your time

Why it is important to understand the essential nature of tasks as a salesperson?

How does distinguishing between these activities help a salesperson manage their time?

• Great salespeople think like an entrepreneur. They see their territory as their “own business.”
• They don’t wait for formal company training to tell them how to plan their day.
• They get to work early and dedicate time outside of prime selling hours to get administrative tasks done.

Think like an entrepreneur

Weekly Planning

Sellers should hold a weekly planning session during non-peak selling time (e.g., early morning), and should last about an hour. Steps:

Step 1: Begin by identifying any upcoming meetings with customers. Set a goal for each meeting and ensure that you have the right resources:

• Do I have the information that the prospect is expecting?
• Is there anyone else on my team that needs to be invited?
• Do I have strategies prepared to overcome any objections that might come up during the meeting?

Weekly Planning (cont.)

Sellers should hold a weekly planning session during non-peak selling time (e.g., early morning), and should last about an hour. Steps:

Step 2: Next, plan for other non-customer appointments.

• Schedule company meetings, planning sessions, and other tasks.
• Identify openings on your calendar to schedule follow-up appointments.
• Ensure that prospecting activities are scheduled and blocked out on your calendar, just like a meeting would be.

At the end of your weekly planning session, your entire week should be filled out like so:

Daily Planning

• At the end of each day, make plans for the next day. Daily planning should only take 15 to 20 minutes.
• Similar to weekly planning, daily planning involves making goals for each meeting and setting careful plans to reach those goals.

SECTION 2

Time Management

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

• How do you get to a location you have never been to before? Do you put the location into your smartphone and follow the directions?

• Similarly, KPIs are like directions and the final sale is the destination. KPIs help us know how to reach an end result.

Focusing on salesperson KPIs

• KPIs measure the effectiveness of key business objectives.

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• A salesperson uses KPIs to focus selling efforts and measure performance.

Focusing on salesperson KPIs (cont.)

• For example, assume that for every 30 prospecting phone calls, you generate an average of 1-2 appointments. As a result, you may set a KPI for 30 prospecting phone calls every day and block out time on your calendar.

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• What are some other KPIs that a seller might choose to focus on?

Intentional use of time

• Salespeople need to manage their time, rather than allow their time to be managed by outside influences. Otherwise, sellers often end up doing only the tasks immediately in front of them.
• Too often, salespeople are reactive rather than active.

Intentional use of time (cont.)

• For example, a salesperson who spends two hours resolving a client’s complaint about a problem with software rather than allowing technical support to deal with the issue. The salesperson worked on the technical issue instead of using the time to do the prospecting that was scheduled.
• While salespeople need to make sure their customers are happy, salespeople should delegate non-essential customer tasks to others within the company

Use a planner or calendar

Sellers need to write down their schedule in a planner. No one can keep track of their entire week with only their memory.

When weekly planning, block off the appointments using a color coding schema (see the example on the next slide).

Use a planner or calendar (cont.)

Orange: office time for administrative tasks

Red: internal meetings

Yellow: meetings with potential clients or client meetings

Green: prospecting activities 

Blue: lunch or personal time 

Purple: time for replying to emails

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ACTIVITY TIME!

Time blocking: Activity – Slide A

Code: 138567289563745

Time blocking: Activity – Slide B

Code: 573912747293741

Does anyone have the codes memorized?

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Does anyone have PART of the codes memorized?

Time blocking: Activity – Slide C

Code: 968352176489146

Time blocking: Activity – Slide D

Code: 346285978654275

Does anyone have the codes memorized?

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Does anyone have PART of the codes memorized?

Does anyone have more of the codes memorized than the first time around?

Time blocking

• It is better to devote large blocks of time around one task rather than to go back and forth between tasks.
• Research shows that time blocking is a much more effective way to work than multitasking.

Use tools to be efficient

• Use a calendar, such as Google calendar, Apple calendar, or Outlook calendar.
• Use tools like Calendly that can integrate with your personal calendar and allow clients to choose when they can meet with you.
• Use other tools, like PandaDoc or Docusign, to help with important repeating activities such as creating proposals.

Planning for non-peak hours

• Plan non-essential tasks during non-peak hours (when clients are most likely available). These tasks should be scheduled on your calendar during non-peak times such as lunch, early mornings, or towards the end of your day.
• When the urge comes to do one of these administrative tasks, you need to consciously tell yourself you will do it during the time specifically allocated for that task.

SECTION 3

Fundamentals of

Goal Setting

Why goals matter

Goals give you direction and help you focus on the right activities.

Salespeople generally encounter two types of goals: (1) goals from your sales leaders, and

(2) goals that you set for your personal success.

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

SMART – S: Specific

• You will achieve nothing if you pursue everything.
• Bad example: “I want to be smarter.”
• Good example: “I want to read one business book a month.”
• This goal specifies a specific action (read a business book) and how often.

SMART – M: Measurable

• Goals should be quantifiable and/or measurable.
• Bad example: “I want to make more money by Dec. 31st.”
• This goal does not specify how much money you want to make and from what source (e.g., sales commission).
• Good example: “I will earn $50,000 in sales commission by December 31st.”

SMART – A: Achievable

• Evaluate past experiences to determine whether certain goals are realistic
• Bad example: “I want to be promoted to CEO by the end of the year.”
• If you are an entry level BDR, then this is likely not realistic. Has anyone ever been promoted that from level to CEO?
• Good example: “I want to be promoted to a sales manager within two years.”

SMART – R: Relevant

• Ensure that goals are relevant to your position and are things you can control.
• Bad example: “Improve the accounts payable process at the company.”
• If you are a salesperson, then this goal is not relevant because it is outside the salesperson’s scope.
• Good example: “Follow-up with accounts payable once a week about my accounts that have not been paid.”

SMART – T: Time-bound

• Have a specific time by which the goal should be achieved.
• Bad example: “Listen to more selling podcasts.”
• This goal does not have a timeframe by which it should be achieved.
• Good example: “Listen to a podcast every Thursday on the way to work.”

SMART Goal Activity

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Accountability

• The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) found that people who commit their goals to another person have a 65% chance of completing their goals.
• However, holding accountability appointments raises the probability of reaching your goal to 95%!

Accountability (cont.)

Method:

Mastermind

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Activity:

A mastermind is a small group of people who participate in various activities including brainstorming, education, and peer accountability. The members of the group help each other set goals, get help, and practice accountability.

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Cadence:

Typically the small group meets weekly or monthly, virtually or in person.

Accountability (cont.)

Method:

Accountability partner

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Activity:

An accountability partner is a friend, family member, or trust coworker with whom you can commit goals and occasionally meet to discuss progress and support one another.

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Cadence:

Accountability partners typically meet weekly or monthly. Since there are only two individuals, a simple phone call might be sufficient.

Accountability (cont.)

Method:

One-on-one with your sales leader

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Activity:

A one-on-one is an opportunity to meet with your sales leader to receive feedback and coaching, discuss sales quotas, and review progress toward your goals. Sales leaders in many organizations hold one-on one meetings to encourage accountability with their salespeople.

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Cadence:

Sales professionals typically meet monthly with their sales leaders to report on their sales pipeline, set goals, and receive coaching.