Getting started with sales productivity is the easiest and the hardest part. The fact that you are worrying about productivity in the first place is a good sign. Either you are addressing a specific issue that has occurred, that you think could have been prevented by more effective organisation, or you know that you need to improve if you are going to get rich, sit on the board, drive a sports car etc.
Let’s talk about goals for a moment. What are your goals for today, for this week, even for this year?
You probably have a loose idea of what you want to achieve in the short term. If you take the time to examine it, you’ll
find that most of it is reactionary; that is it is determined by what is going on right now – deals, meetings, sales targets, household chores – you get the picture.
That’s fine. These things have to be done. They represent what we are going to call the operational level of your life.
Now we know that, we are going to forget it…for now.
Above the operational level, we have the planning level. This is comprised of the operational things that need to be achieved, but they are not happening right now. For instance, you know that you are going to have to replace your car this year; the mileage is high and the maintenance costs are going to outweigh its value. You can’t afford to do it now, but you plan to do it this year.
Or let’s take a sales example, as this is a sales productivity blog. You know that your company has a new product coming out in quarter three. You know that, to get ahead of the game, you need to start learning about the market for that product, but you don’t have the time right now. You think that you will probably look at it closer to the time – if the opportunity arises!
They are still tasks that are dictated by the daily machinations of your life; they are just a bit further out. This is the planning level.
Then we come to the exciting stuff! What do you want to do with your life? Whoa, steady on there for a minute. That’s a big question. Do I even know that? My bet is that you do. You might not have your entire future mapped out, but I know that you have ambitions and dreams for at least some areas of your life. That seat on the board, or moving from the telesales team to major accounts, becoming team leader – anything.
And what about your life outside work, because to be a productive seller, we need to live our lives outside work just as effectively. Everything has a balance and if all you do is work, you will burn out.
This is the strategic level, and it’s where all of our work will start.
So, your task for the week is to take a few sheets of paper and a pencil and start to write out your long term objectives for your life. Don’t worry about when you are going to do what: one year, five years, twenty years; it doesn’t matter at this stage. Write each one at the top of a sheet of paper. That’s it. That is the basis of the strategic level and it’s where your journey into sales productivity will start.
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