How to increase productivity through effective time management

Welcome to Selling for Success — your go-to sales podcast for strategies, tips, and inspiration to help you close more deals, generate leads, and grow your business.

In this episode, we’ll cover: 

• Creating a structured weekly schedule with time blocks increases productivity
• The 80-20 rule shows that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts
• Identifying your high-payoff activities helps prioritize your most valuable work

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Welcome to the podcast!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Time Management
• 2:29 The 80-20 Rule for Sales
• 5:31 Identifying High-Payoff Activities
• 9:58 Exercise: Auditing Your Tasks
• 11:25 Mindset and Habits for Productivity
• 16:24 Action Plan and Key Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello and welcome to another podcast. My name is Graeme Elliott and I will be taking you through the podcast today. Now, I did a survey recently just trying to understand, for people who listen to the podcast, what their biggest concerns are, and one of them that came out was time management and productivity. So that is the subject of this podcast and I'm going to be talking through some of the issues that hopefully you can identify, and I'll give you an action plan at the end with a few things that you can do straight away to improve your results, hopefully. So I guess the first thing to note is that did you know that most salespeople spend less than a third of their day actually selling? So if you take that across the activity of a week or however long you want to choose, that's typically what most people spend their time not doing is selling. So the important thing is what are you doing in the rest of that time? Because it's very easy to get overwhelmed by different tasks. There are distractions, there's a lot of work that's very low value. So here we're looking at the difference between being busy and being effective, and obviously what you need to do is really to make sure you're being effective. So let's step through. Clearly there is a link between productivity as in being effective and revenue. So if you're spending most of your time on things that are not really helping you to hit revenue, then it's hardly surprising that a lot of people don't make target.

Speaker 1: 1:46

In the last podcast I spoke about that, and this is where some of the problems lie. At least One of the common traps that salespeople fall into is to start working on diverse tasks, or they'll get into email rabbit holes, or you're researching something and you'll get distracted, you might have an overload of admin, and all of this can add up to essentially, it breaks your thought processes. So we're much less effective when we're unable to focus on a particular task and what we need to be doing, and really another outcome of this podcast I hope for you is to start working so that you work a lot more effectively than perhaps you are at the moment. So what are some things you can do? Most of these relate to time management, and when I've been working with some sales people particularly the people who are really bad at sales management what we would do is just block out the week.

Speaker 1: 2:50

So take a typical week block each day out into maybe two hour blocks, one or two hour blocks, and set that structure for the week. So obviously some of that is client visits, but there are also the other tasks that have to be done. Now you know what your tasks are, so there might be expenses, for example. So that used to be something if I wasn't traveling I like to get. That was my kind of Monday morning activity because it eased me back into the week. I'd normally start a little ahead of time, kind of ahead of the regular working day, if you like, but let me just sit down and do a fairly simple task but kept it under control. And then I was a bit more tuned into the week because I was thinking back on the previous week. Also, speaking as a sales manager, the thing I didn't appreciate was somebody who did this only did it once was to say I think it was three months worth of expenses in one hit. It was just crazy. So do be respectful of the other people you work with as well and respect their time.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So I'm going to come back to this planning, but I want you to start maybe thinking about that way. Think about what the key tasks are. So that might be telephone calls to clients might be follow-up calls, it might be writing up your CRM, it might be sending emails, it might be doing research, it might be product training, if you have products that you need to stay on top of. So all of these things need to be done, but you're a lot more effective if you can allocate time for them and have a typical weekly structure, and obviously there are times when you need to deviate from that structure, but it gives you a structure that you can build up from rather than being in kind of chaos. It gets a bit chaotic when there's no structure.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Now I'm going to talk about prioritization, and the thing that I want you to think about is the 80-20 rule. So that is that 80% of results often come from about 20% of effort, and that's the sort of well-known rule. So, for example, 80% of your revenue is likely to come from 20% of your clients, or 20% of your deals. 80% of meaningful conversations might come from 20% of your prospecting efforts. 80% of wasted time might come from 20% of activities that might be admin, low-value leads, that kind of thing. Endless meetings Meetings are a great way to burn up time if they're not actually giving you anything that will help you move forward and achieve your goals. So what I want you to do and this is a really valuable exercise to do, perhaps after the podcast, certainly if you're driving or anything like that Just think of what is your top 20.

Speaker 1: 5:36

So that could be your clients, your activities, what gets you the most results? So you could think of these as your high payoff activities. This is a phrase I heard from a trainer, actually, who did some training for my salesman on one occasion, and I kind of like that. So it's a case of stepping back and looking at what are the activities that will lead to you really generating your target. Get clearer on those and spend more time on them. And then also, it's important to look at what are the 80% that don't make it into the 20s.

Speaker 1: 6:17

So what are the low value tasks that don't move the needle, as it were, that don't get you close to hitting target? So, of those tasks, what can you do with them? Is there someone you can delegate them to? For example, is there an administrator, somebody in the office, who could take on those tasks for you and leave you free to spend more time on the more important tasks? Do they have to be done at all, or can they be blocked off, maybe not done as frequently, so it's really important to understand that. So, for example, if 20 of your prospects are bringing in 80 of revenue, it's really important that you focus more of your time nurturing that 20%, those high value accounts, instead of trying to cover everybody.

Speaker 1: 7:05

So, again, if you're doing calls and you regularly go and see people, make sure you're spending, or you're doing more regular calls with that top 20 group and maybe the less important clients from the perspective of helping you to meet a target, maybe see them less often and maybe do a few together. The way I would always encourage people to do visits for example, this was dealing with the geographical area is to have a key client in an area and then just look at who else was around, either in exactly that area or on the way there, or on the way back, or on the way onto the next one. However, it worked. But then you can perhaps pick up the less important people, so they do get a bit of time, but you're not spending a lot of time with them. Certainly what you don't want to be doing is focusing on low value clients and making them the reason for you traveling or even spending a lot of time with them. Just keep in touch with them. But if you're seeing them monthly, can you drop it back to two monthly or every two months or every three months? So have a look at that kind of prioritization of your clients.

Speaker 1: 8:13

If 20% of your tasks create 80% of your productivity, so calls demonstrations, whatever they may be, make sure that those tasks are the ones getting prioritized. So protect the time and set yourself a target. If it's demonstrations, how many can you realistically do in a week? You know it might be one a day, it might be one a week, I don't know. I don't know what you sell. You know it might be one a day, it might be one a week, I don't know. I don't know what you sell, but make sure that you're focusing time on those so that not only that you're doing them but also that they're effective.

Speaker 1: 8:44

So the task to do basically is to look back over the last week and I'm going to suggest you think about tasks that relate to sales, but also looking at generally what you're doing with your time and first of all, write down what the tasks are that you normally do. So that might be prospecting, it might be follow-up emails. It might be updating your CRM, could be client meetings, running a proposal. You might be involved in networking or some sort of outreach program might be involved in networking or some sort of outreach program. There could be internal meetings that you have to do and once you've done that, look at, first of all, give everything a score. So in other words, taking each activity in turn, did this activity directly move you closer to closing deals or generating a good pipeline? So if it did, then maybe give it two points. If you're not sure, give it one, and if it's a no, give it zero.

Speaker 1: 9:49

And then look at how much time you spent on that activity. So you really ideally want to have a total for the week. So if it's something you do every day, how much time do you spend every day, or does it vary? But get some feel for just how much time you're spending on these tasks and then how many points are those tasks worth in terms of getting you closer to your revenue target? And this will help you to identify the top 20%. So I like to write things down. I like to draw circles around things so I can really see what's going on. So circle the things with the highest impact scores, so the ones that actually create sales conversions, meetings, deals, that kind of thing sales conversions, meetings, deals, that kind of thing. Look at how much time you're spending on those versus everything else, and usually what you'll notice is that a small number of activities create the majority of your pipeline or of your revenue, depending on how you're operating. So the key thing to do with that is then to just make sure that, as a priority, you are spending as much time as you can really or certainly as much time as is genuinely needed on those high value activities and, as I've said, look at how you can perhaps spend less time or no time on the low value activities if there's some other way of having them carried out.

Speaker 1: 11:14

Now I want to talk about one other thing, which is about mindset and habits. So these also, I think, are very important to help you get productive. So the very first thing is looking at your own energy, so making sure that you get enough breaks, that you're getting, hopefully, good sleep. What you don't want to do is do burnout, and I've seen this with a lot of people. I've fallen into that trap myself at times that you just see so many tasks and this is bad if you're one of those people who likes to do everything themselves, so there can be a real challenge there to delegate. But this is where the exercise I've just taken you through is really valuable, because it starts to become very clear on what the important things are, and I think the truth with a lot of people is they're actually not spending as much, or maybe not anywhere near as much time, on those important tasks as they they warrant.

Speaker 1: 12:09

They're actually spending a lot of their time on tasks which they might enjoy doing they, they might feel comfortable doing them, but they're really not helping, and so it's good to be honest with yourself if that's the case, just to step back and again, look objectively at how you're spending your time, but do avoid burnout, and this often comes from just doing too much. And, in fact, if you're feeling overwhelmed which is another issue that we can face when we've got a lot of tasks to do, typically we get overwhelmed because we're looking at everything. We're looking at all of the tasks that need to be done and we're looking at how we do them now, all of them. So the way to get around overwhelm again is to firstly, write everything down, prioritize each task, and I've just given you some guidelines about how you can do that and then focus on the high priority tasks first, because you need to get those done. Obviously they're the most important tasks, but in focusing on one thing at a time, I think you'll find I certainly found that that was a great way of handling overwhelm, and it's a really good feeling when you start getting something done, when you get that list of things to do and you're able to start crossing things off the list.

Speaker 1: 13:22

So do protect your energy, because they're also much less effective when we're tired or exhausted or burnt out, whatever it is. So do respect yourself and your energy. Also, look at being disciplined. So don't set boundaries. Be realistic about what you can do and also say no when you have to. A lot of people will just say yes to everything and then they get completely overwhelmed and they get into all sorts of trouble. So if you're asked to do something you really don't have the bandwidth to do it, then say no, I'm sorry, but I can't do that at the moment. I just really don't have the bandwidth to do it. Then say no, I'm sorry, but I can't do that at the moment. I just really don't have the the space to do that.

Speaker 1: 13:59

A good thing as well to do is to be consistent. So whatever however you decide to structure yourself and your time, do try and get consistent with it, because then it will become a good habit and then you won't even be think about it. The way you're handling your time will be far more productive. It's a bit like going to the gym. There's that old thing about you know, you kind of make yourself go initially, you form it into a habit and then you don't. You know things start to happen. So it's really important to be consistent.

Speaker 1: 14:30

One of the things that I like to do is to round up each day by just looking at the top three things that have to be done the following day. So that allows me, while I'm kind of in that mindset, in that moment of working in the day, I can and I'm going to stop because I respect myself for my energy. So I know where I need to pick up the following day. But get very clear on what those three things are, and what I also recommend is that you don't have a list of more than three. And again, that also comes from a lot of experience. I have started the day with lots and lots of things to do, and generally I'll find that I haven't been able to do most of them by the end of the day. Plus, other things have come up and so I start the following day with an even longer list, and this can get very demotivating because you just feel like you're constantly drowning in a sea of tasks. So this is where the prioritization I've spoken about is really important, and this is where limiting it to three. So if you do more than three, that's bonus, but do be realistic about it. Do pick the three things that have to be done. Or maybe it's only one thing has to be done and too nice to do. So whatever it is, but work on three, because that generally is achievable. If your days are anything like mine, usually there's a lot of interruptions, so all sorts of things happen that you weren't thinking of, and I found that three things is probably the realistic number to be working with. So, really, to recap, I'm going to keep this short because, you know, I think that the basic point is fairly simple actually. So, just to recap basic points, fairly simple actually. So just to recap.

Speaker 1: 16:18

Um, first of all, I really do recommend that you look at some structure. But the place to start, first of all, is look at what you're doing in your week. So do that exercise look at what you do on a typical week. If last week wasn't typical, then then fine, you know what's typical week for you. Uh, list out all of those tasks, rate them in terms of their importance. Are they two? They're really important, are they a one not sure. Are they at zero, where they're not important or don't contribute to your numbers and then look at how much time you spend on them. And if you're not sure, then just keep a diary for a week or two, you know. Just write down how you're spending your day. That's a very good way of really getting accurate, and the more accurate your numbers are, the clearer the picture is. So do that and then look at where you're spending your time. So the high scoring activities. That needs to be where you're definitely spending time. And then, when it comes to setting out your timetable for the week, again make sure those high payoff activities are the ones that get the time they need, whether that's something that's done daily or for a certain number of times in a week, and then work in the other things and where you can just delegate the things that don't help you at all.

Speaker 1: 17:34

The other thing to look at is, I think, discipline. You know, don't get distracted. It's very easy to dive down rabbit holes, but I really recommend that you don't and you really stay focused as much as you can. If you do need to do research and things like that, by all means put time aside. That could be a Friday afternoon activity or, you know, when you've got, things are quieter where you are on Friday generally, then maybe that's the time to do some research, read some journals or magazines or online, whatever it is for your, the business that you do, maybe have meetings with people, things like that. So, again, another way to look at this is when your clients most available, when you, when you need to spend time with clients, and what are the times in the day or the week where you tend to have less client activity because they're just not available for whatever reason.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Okay, so that's my recommendation Let me know how that works for you, let me know what your important task is, put it in the comments or anything you've learned from doing the exercise. Please let me know. It's always good to get feedback and know that you're getting some value from this and if there is anything else that you would like to see me cover, in terms of maybe something that's keeping you awake at night, in terms of selling, please drop a comment or an email and I will very happily cover it in a podcast. Okay, that's it for now. I hope you have a great day, evening, week, wherever you are, and I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.