We often overlook one area when working in sales, and it’s not prospecting, closing, or even relationship-building. It’s productivity. 79% of sales executives say improving productivity is the leading driver to reach or exceed a sales target. So, in today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald gives three reasons why salespeople have a hard time planning, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find the productivity that leads to sales success. There’s no formal education to teach productivity for salespeople. This is from a company standpoint. There are programs (like ours), but internally, organizations don’t spend time teaching productivity. 49% of organizations have zero or limited means of measuring productivity. Donald’s team uses an internal planner he designed to help prioritize productive and measurable tasks. Sales reps frequently believe they don’t have the time to do everything they need. But after analyzing their day or week, they always find areas where they can focus on more meaningful activities. Multiple things change gears at different speeds. Sales reps have multiple activities unrelated to success, like researching leads and updating a CRM. None of those directly lead to a sale, but it’s part of an overall process. Only one-third of a sales rep’s day is talking to prospects, yet 21% of their day is writing emails. Is this a valuable way to spend time? Kevin Kruse’s 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management recommends blocking out your day in 15-minute intervals. Designate one, two, or however many chunks of time you need for daily tasks, and be dedicated and focused for those specific segments. Donald’s tip? Utilize a platform like Otter, Google Docs, or even your iPhone to use a voice-to-text feature that writes what you need to put into your CRM. We have a reactive approach to selling. Sales is traditionally reactive to the interest of the seller. Instead, you should have a strategy and process in place. Think of yourself as a rocket scientist. Your schedule is likely filled with redundancies (although yours are probably far less important than the scientist’s. We know it’s true.) 50% of a sales rep is wasted on unproductive things. Are you focusing on the right activities? Look at and evaluate your day. Would you be able to say those are proactive activities? The moment you can recognize that your time is valuable and you’re more than a cog in a wheel, you can take control of your schedule. This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions...

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