How to Boost Productivity in Sales | Your Ideal Week

Posted July 30, 2024 in Sales Brew

My youngest daughter is a “routine” child. For her brain to operate to the best of its ability, she must know, in advance, what is expected of her. Summertime is tough because the consistent, predictable school year routine doesn’t exist. So, at the beginning of the summer, I created a weekly schedule board for her that runs from the time she wakes up till the time she goes to bed. Each morning, she comes into my office and fills out her day. She comes back to check it regularly to remind herself what she has done and what’s coming next. Additionally, each activity on her board has a time block. When that time block is up, she knows to move to the next item on her board.

Having this tool has helped her immensely! Her summer is going more smoothly than we could have hoped because she knows what’s up ahead, and what to expect. It has helped her grow, learn, and achieve things she hasn’t been able to do before. I believe we would ALL benefit from a schedule board like hers.

When I coach salespeople and work with clients, I often get asked how to improve productivity. We have plenty of techniques and suggestions, but the foundation of any truly productive workday starts with having an effective schedule. We call it the “ideal week” and consists of specific time blocks dedicated to all the “must-do” activities your responsible for accomplishing.

Crafting your Ideal Week is essential for success in selling as barriers and “fires” often get in the way of accomplishing your goals. While things rarely go as planned during the week, it’s important to set yourself up no matter what and stay committed to the process. But how do you do that?

Boost Productivity in Sales by Planning Your Ideal Week

Here are the 6 keys to creating and making an Ideal Week that works for you:

Identify the must-do weekly activities.
Prioritize your most impactful activities. Remember that about 20% of your activities generate roughly 80% of your results so identify, prioritize, and pursue those activities FIRST.
Allocate either hours or a % of your total work week to be spent on those activities.
Begin blocking out time to perform your priority activities.
Block out time for necessary internal activities, working with current clients, and ‘fires’ (the unplanned, important but not urgent events that are sure to pop up in your daily life).
AND THE HARDEST PART – Stay committed to the schedule. Only urgent and important events should throw you off your Ideal Week. Urgent and important events are things like a top 10% client having a must-fix, “can’t wait” problem or a personal, unavoidable emergency. Ignore the gnat bites- pay attention to the alligator bites! Deal with the important, but not urgent events, in the time you allocated to “fires”.

If you spend your day ping-ponging around, moving from one activity to the other but feel like you never actually accomplish all that you need and want to, consider building your own ideal week or schedule board. If you commit to the process and stay focused on the task in front of you, you will grow, learn, and achieve more than ever before.