Inside Sales by Design

sales artifacts

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Focus your time: Become the Mistress/Master of your Calendar

In this short clip, we talk about time. There is a massive body of work out in the world talking about time, time management, maximizing your time, getting the most out of your time, etc….you name it, there’s an article, book, expert, example. Here’s the reality, we all get 168 hours a week and time is the most important resource we have; once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Perhaps approach how you spend your time by using the Pauli exclusion principle that says no two things can occupy the same space.*  Folks, if you have an hour, you only have an hour. That’s a total of 60 minutes and we can only use them once.

So what does all of that mean? That means we employ massive, epic, and egregious prioritization and compartmentalization of our time, tasks, talents, and treasures to become the Mistress and Master of our Calendar. Here are some tips you can use:

  1. Brendon Burchard’s 1 Page Productivity Planner
  2. The Power of the Three-Item-To-Do-List
  3. Search the power of to do lists and you’ll get about 587 million returns.

Action tip for the day: employ a to-do list, make it manageable, keep your eye on your strategic goals, while executing tactically daily

*I am not, nor will pretend to be a physicist. I am, however, citing the Pauli exclusion principle in its most simple form. 

Dionne is a 20 year sales veteran having built and scaled Inside Sales team from the ground up. She started her own firm, Inside Sales by Design, to work with companies wanting to build their Inside Sales Teams right the first time and transform their current Inside Sales Team into something greater. Dionne believes in and uses common sense, practical approaches to inspire leaders and teams to greatness.

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Get Stuff Done

If you live by the words “this is how we’ve always done it” and really, really like a well defined rut, this is probably not what you’re looking for. If however, you are interested in making changes within yourself and your team, you’ve come to the right place.

If you’re someone who likes to get up and get stuff done, then you’re in the right place. If dangling items on your to-do list make you nauseous and procrastination make you cranky, you’re in good company.

As a leader, we are on the hook for numbers, relationships, process, initial onboarding, ongoing training, the list goes on and on. Can I get an Amen? Sometimes, tackling these big initiatives is so overwhelming, we don’t know where to start.

And even worse, we do nothing.

Well, let’s talk about eating the elephant one bit at a time, just like in the video. At the AA-ISP Leadership Summit in 2017, I was fortunate enough to lead a pre-event workshop titled Transforming your Inside Sales Team. During this workshop, we walked through an Inside Sales Infrastructure scorecard and everybody rated themselves.

The purpose of this exercise was (and is) to stop, think, and do.

The leaders in this workshop scored themselves and then rated what particular area of focus would give their team the most lift. Based upon those scores, they were then able to plot actions on an annual calendar for tackling.

Again, keeping in mind that things happen – both good and bad – and we should allow enough time so we’re not short-circuiting our efforts before they begin.

ISbD Annual Plan
ISbD Annual Plan to get stuff done

 

Resources for you:

  1. AA-ISP
  2. Transforming your Inside Sales Team worksheets (this is where you’ll find the scorecard)

Action tip of the day: (1) complete your scorecard, (2) figure out which area of your Inside Sales Infrastructure you could improve that would matter most to your team and deliver the biggest impact, (3) determine next steps and right them down, and (4) compartmentalize what you need, next best steps, and execute!

 

 

 

Dionne is a 20 year sales veteran having built and scaled Inside Sales team from the ground up. She started her own firm, Inside Sales by Design, to work with companies wanting to build their Inside Sales Teams right the first time and transform their current Inside Sales Team into something greater. Dionne believes in and uses common sense, practical approaches to inspire leaders and teams to greatness.

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6 Must-Have’s to Insure your Team’s Success – Part 1

There are tried and true must-have’s that all successful Inside Sales leaders have in place. Go ahead, don’t believe me, ask your Inside Sales Leader peers and you’ll find each and every one of them have the following must-have’s in place. These artifacts speak to Leaders who have a clear and deliberate path; they treat their career with care and intentionally move through their day, leading their teams to victory.

Onboarding Program: Probably the most critical and under used tool in your arsenal. Think of onboarding as playing Host/Hostess to your new hires. You just spent time getting to know each other and now, the mutual decision has been made to have this extraordinary person start with your organization. This is the perfect opportunity for everyone to continue putting their best foot forward

(Sales) Training Program: There is a distinct difference between Product Training and Sales Training. Definitely have both, however, keep in mind that having your Product Person download to a sales person does not insure success. *Remember: The purpose of Onboarding and Training is to get your New Hires up to speed with the goal of getting them to productivity within 4 months.

Leader Playbook: A Sales Leader Playbook exists for you as a Sales Leader and serves as a “you-are-here dot”. This document or power point is also used in your Training and Onboarding program, is revisited and tweaked on a regular basis, and leveraged heavily in your communication with other departments and your manager.

Sales Playbook: This is your team’s Bible and also used in your Training and Onboarding program. This is the single source of truth for your team when it comes to information, messaging, and leveraging tools and technology.

Ongoing Coaching and Mentoring: Employees are looking for more than a paycheck, they are looking for purpose in their everyday lives and at work. The key to this being successful is consistency; and having objective success criteria in place. Here’s what that means, your 1:1’s are consistent and meaningful; an agenda is set and expectations are clear.

Dashboards: As the saying goes, you can’t win if you don’t keep score. While some folks like not keeping score, Sales is not for the lover of ambiguity. We either do or do not make our number. We either do or do not make phone calls. It’s very clear cut and the numbers reflect our effort and skill. Make it easy for your team to know how they’re doing.

Tune in as we dive into specifics and offer examples & templates. You can also subscribe to www.PMInsideSales.com to join the Inside Sales movement and receive more information.