Smarter Calendarization A powerful time management tool & motivator by: Kate Kingston, Kingston Training Group
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any sales executives approach their calendars as spots where they list some of their upcoming “action items.” But what they do not see is that proper “calendarization” is a powerful time management tool and can be effectively used as a motivator to accomplish more work. Here at the Kingston Training Group (KTG), we understand that sales executives must address all types of activities each week, and one of the biggest challenges they face (after closing enough business to meet quota) is finding enough time in their workweeks to accomplish all of their responsibilities. A 45-hour workweek should be the minimum expectation of hours spent and accounted for in a successful sales executive’s calendar. If you look at all of the responsibilities of typical sales executives, they can usually be categorized into three segments. Many well-known billionaires have shared how they find the time to accomplish the work needed to build and maintain their business empires. Elon Musk and Bill Gates schedule their days in five-minute blocks. They are very busy and their time is precious — but so is yours. Five-minute blocks may feel too aggressive, so working your calendar in half-hour intervals will be easier to accomplish. The first segment would be tasks involved in the pursuit of net-new sales. This includes finding and researching new potential customers, prospecting to schedule net-new meetings with potential customers and, finally, attending those meetings. The second segment is usually related to current customer care. This includes answering daily inquiries, putting out “customer fires,” and identifying, preparing, scheduling and attending partnership review meetings. The third segment is the time needed to accomplish the responsibilities of working at the dealership: inputting content into the CRM, attending mandatory meetings, doing product training, customer installations, and preparing and submitting paperwork.
The following is a quick and easy 30-minute sales management exercise that will help to immediately identify where each sales executive is and allow him (or her) to control his time more effectively while accomplishing his netnew prospecting goals. Step 1 — Have your sales executives take screenshots of their calendars for the next week. Do not give them any warning, just simply ask them to screenshot their calendars and email them to you. This will ensure that they will provide you with real snapshots of how they are currently using their calendars as effective business tools. Step 2 — Review their calendars quickly as they come into your email and count how many open hours or “holes” there are in each day. Explain that any “holes” need to be filled with tasks, including prospecting. Step 3 — After your review, have them edit their calendars in order to fill in every “hole” in their workweeks so that every moment is accounted for. Share with your team members that if they do not already have meetings planned, then they should be prospecting during all open spaces in their calendars. Give them 10 minutes to make these changes www.offi cetechnol ogymag. c om | M a rc h 2020 | 29
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