Sales Reps: Throw Away Your Task List!
The "weakest link" in the sales cycle for Sales Machine reader "STiller2" is:
Accomplishing good things on 90% of my task/kill list and letting 10% slip by with no attention. This 10% is killing me.MY ADVICE:
Your problem is that you've got a list of tasks when you actually need is a list of goals. To fix this, you need to understand that you're spending too much time ticking off tasks rather than achieving your goals.
Most time management systems use task lists to organize future activities. Tasks come in four varieties:
- Urgent and important. The deadline of a critical project is TODAY; you must go to court TODAY.
- Urgent but unimportant. Your manicure is TODAY; your favorite TV show is on NOW.
- Not urgent and unimportant. Playing a computer game; watching Mad Men on your Tivo.
- Not urgent but important. Spending time enriching your mind; planning your next career move.
As a general rule, task lists force you to focus on categories #1 and #2 until you get tired of working, at which point you "wind down" by focusing on category #3.
Unfortunately, most of the quality of your life and your long term success comes from focusing on category #4. I'll bet that you seldom, if ever, get to the tasks fall into category #4.
In fact, it sounds like you're getting tied up trying to complete all the category #1 and #2 stuff. That's because you've got a list of tasks.
What's much more effective is the following:
- Start your planning with a list of goals that you want to accomplish that day, including the goals that would need category #4 tasks to achieve.
- Under each goal, list the specific tasks that you could do that day to achieve that goal or move you closer to it.
- For each task, estimate its impact (in terms of moving yourself closer to the goal) and the time it would take to complete that task.
- For each goal, highlight the tasks that will have the most impact but take the smallest amount of time.
- Schedule your day to fit those tasks. Then execute them in the full knowledge that you're NOT going to do every task on your full list.
Goal: Increase bookings at Acme by 100 percent. Today's tasks:
- Create a competitive analysis of Acme's primary business.
Impact: Medium. Time: 3 hours. - Call the CEO to confirm latest shipment and set up meeting.
Impact: High. Time: 5 minutes. - Send brochures to the CFO with an explanatory note.
Impact: Low. Time: 30 minutes.
This kind of goal-based prioritization is a simplification of the very powerful RPM system espoused by Anthony Robbins. It's powerful stuff, and it will free you from feeling bad about not doing 100 percent of your tasks, because you'll be achieving your goals without worrying about a perfect "kill" score on your list.
Note: the question above came from the recent post "Free Coaching: Accelerate Your Career" asked Sales Machine readers to identify the weakest link in their sales skill set.