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You Can Do Anything - But You Can't Do Everything.
Lucky us! Another sales paradigm that directly also coincides with day to day life!
Let's talk about the most valuable commodity of all - TIME.
Time is the most precious resource that you have in life, so naturally it is the most important variable in how you choose to grow your business. You need to figure out where your time is best spent to maximize your effectiveness.
A major issue young professionals have is not knowing what to spend their time on. Every time the phone rings, you drop everything and answer it. You run around like a chicken with your head cut off because you’re trying to check off all of the boxes necessary set in place by a company, what you think is the most important, Larry from the cube down the hall, etc. You spend the same amount of time on a $10k opp as you would on a $1MM opp.
Of course, when you are new, you have no experience. You have to learn these lessons the hard way. You need to build those relationships. The only way to do that is by time spent.
But as you progress in your career, you need to be brutally honest about how you are allocating the finite amount of time you have available.
Please know that effective time management is the only was to grow/scale your business. Time is a limited resource - you need to prioritize and maximize the ROI you are getting from each of your actions.
Million Dollar wins are moving the needle They should not be placed on the same tier of a hierarchical structure as a $10k opportunity. The sooner you realize you cannot afford to spend the same amount of time/effort/energy on these opps, the better you'll be
In sales, you CAN WIN ANY opportunity, but you CAN't and WON'T win EVERY opportunity.
So, how do you go about spending your time correctly? You create and follow the Chris Keith - Opportunity/Client Tracker :). That link will take you to a Googlesheets doc I already created for ya.
Simply press File -> Make a Copy -> and save your own!
Create a tiered list for current opportunities:
Same thing happens with your client list, it just moves down a bit
************ THESE CAN CHANGE OVERNIGHT ************
Opportunity pipeline is the the ruler of all. When you drum up a potential Tier 1 opportunity, it immediately gets the attention it deserves - so take that into consideration right away, and start spending the time necessary on it! These do not come along often - you have to capitalize on them when they do.
Another major mistake novice salespeople make is not sniffing out the major tier 1 opportunities, because they have “other things going on” or “boxes to check”. Not acceptable. ALWAYS be looking for needle mover opportunities and rearrange your hierarchy when you potentially find one. You cannot apologize for spending the time necessary on those massive whales. As mentioned, they can often time be year changing/career making deals. That shit matters!
Also note - in the Chris Keith - OPP/Client Tracker Example, you’ll notice that there isn’t a ton of additional room in the ‘Pursuit / Next Action columns. That isn’t by accident. This sheet is not supposed to bog you down with unnecessary work/information, as you should be managing that in your head already. This is an overview of the critical next steps to move the needle forward, that’s all.
Call to action:
Happy selling 🙂
