Speaker 1: They remove the stuff that is not going to generate
Speaker 1: revenue for them, and they clear their calendar for the
Speaker 1: things that are going to generate revenue.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Audible Ready podcast. The show that
Speaker 2: helps you and your teams sell more Faster. Will feature
Speaker 2: sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create
Speaker 2: a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth.
Speaker 2: Presented by the team of Force Management, a leader in
Speaker 2: B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 3: Rachel kleb Miller, and today we are going to talk
Speaker 3: about managing your time, which I mean, who doesn't need
Speaker 3: to do that no matter what your role is, but
Speaker 3: particularly in sales, when you are living by the quarter,
Speaker 3: the month, the year, it is really important that you
Speaker 3: maximize your time on those high valued sales activities. So
Speaker 3: I have roped John Boney into this conversation today to
Speaker 3: share his best tips.
Speaker 1: How you doing, John, I'm doing great, Rachel, Good to
Speaker 1: see you again and thanks for having me on the
Speaker 1: podcast today.
Speaker 3: Yes. So John has spent his whole career selling and
Speaker 3: now he helps organizations with force management and also provide
Speaker 3: some great words of advice in his trainings for reps
Speaker 3: who are owning the day to day, so to speak. So, John,
Speaker 3: let's just start with the mindset that we need to
Speaker 3: have when we're structuring our day when we're in that
Speaker 3: quota carrying individual contributor role.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's so many things when we talked about
Speaker 1: this topic and I wrote a bunch of things down
Speaker 1: that came to mind when I think about the mindset
Speaker 1: of elite sellers and people that operate in that mindset.
Speaker 1: So for the first part, first and foremost, they operate
Speaker 1: as an owner or CEO of their territory. Like they
Speaker 1: have that mindset that they own the territory and they
Speaker 1: run it like their own business. They treat their time
Speaker 1: like a finite resource and prioritize activities that drive revenue
Speaker 1: and pipeline growth. Some of the key things that they
Speaker 1: focus on that I've seen over the time that I've
Speaker 1: been leading salespeople is one their strategic operator, right. They
Speaker 1: think in terms of territory planning and multi threading and
Speaker 1: long term account development. They create value. They focus on
Speaker 1: solving business problems, not just talking about features and functions.
Speaker 1: They are the owner of their pipeline. They own every
Speaker 1: stage at the deal cycle and treat pipeline health as
Speaker 1: a leading indicator of success. They're very intentional with what
Speaker 1: they do. Every hour of their day has a purpose,
Speaker 1: whether it's progressing deals or prospecting or internal alignment which
Speaker 1: is sometimes forgotten right making sure that we have that
Speaker 1: internal alignment that needs to take place. They are very
Speaker 1: proactive versus reactive. They don't wait for things to happen,
Speaker 1: They make things happen. They have tremendous discipline and focus.
Speaker 1: They protect their calendar from distractions and low value tasks.
Speaker 1: Qualification and discovery is an ongoing event for them. They're
Speaker 1: always qualifying their opportunities and just going through discovery to
Speaker 1: ensure if things are changing, they're on top of it
Speaker 1: and they're aware of it, and they're consistently evaluating their
Speaker 1: opportunities while that discovery phase never stops. And the last
Speaker 1: thing that I would say, and I know I'm given
Speaker 1: a laundry list of things here, but there's just so
Speaker 1: much for these elite sellers that kind of make them elite.
Speaker 1: Quarterly territory planning, they revisit their icps and white space
Speaker 1: and expansion opportunities and really evaluate that to determine where's
Speaker 1: their next move, where are they going to go. So
Speaker 1: the overall mindset that they have is that if it's
Speaker 1: not on my calendar, it doesn't exist. They remove the
Speaker 1: stuff that is not going to generate revenue for them,
Speaker 1: and they clear their calendar for the things that are
Speaker 1: going to generate revenue. And that's just a handful more
Speaker 1: than a handful of things, Rachel, that kind of came
Speaker 1: to mind when I think about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they make the news, they don't read the news, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And then if I was a sum of everything that
Speaker 3: you said, I would say it is the ownership of
Speaker 3: their territory or the area they're working as a business. Right,
Speaker 3: It's ownership of that, and then it's ownership of their day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ownership of their territory. It's like it's that territory
Speaker 1: is their own business. They're the CEO and the founder
Speaker 1: of that business, and they run it that way, and
Speaker 1: they manage their time and activities as relates to doing
Speaker 1: everything they can to build that business.
Speaker 3: Yeah. That's a great mindset and I think it's something
Speaker 3: that we can always like reset on, right, And you
Speaker 3: think we do that, and then you know, we get
Speaker 3: to we're recording this on a Thursday. He's a Thursday
Speaker 3: of the week, and all the waves of stuff have
Speaker 3: come much at you and you've lost ownership of your
Speaker 3: day or you've lost ownership. So it's a good like reset.
Speaker 3: Put on a posted note. Take ownership of your territory
Speaker 3: and ownership of your day. I think one of the
Speaker 3: things that is a constant struggle, no matter if you're
Speaker 3: a new repor or an experienced rep, is like striking
Speaker 3: that balance between current business, new business, current deals, pipeline generation.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's easy to let the PG fall by
Speaker 3: the wayside, particularly if you're busy working current deals. So
Speaker 3: how did you strike that balance, John, when you were
Speaker 3: in sales? How do you recommend others stand top of it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So what I did and what I recommend to
Speaker 1: others is this is where I think the elite sellers
Speaker 1: really shine, right. They treat PG as a non negotiable.
Speaker 1: It is not optional. It is something that they do
Speaker 1: all the time. So the strategies to balance PG to
Speaker 1: active deals, they have set times. They block sixty to
Speaker 1: ninety minutes like I would block sixty to ninety minutes
Speaker 1: or pipeline generation before the day gets reactive, right, So
Speaker 1: first thing in the morning, I'm doing my pipeline. Another
Speaker 1: thing that I would do is I would do pipeline
Speaker 1: generation sprints, short focus burts of time that I would
Speaker 1: do pipeline thirty minutes of LinkedIn outreach as an example,
Speaker 1: I would set weekly pipeline generation goals, a number of touches,
Speaker 1: meetings that were booked, new contacts that were added. And
Speaker 1: the accountability that I would use around that, and I
Speaker 1: recommend to the people that I would lead is having
Speaker 1: peer check ins or manager check in. Sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: lot easier to do with peers. Sometimes you get that
Speaker 1: real feedback from peers when you have the right team,
Speaker 1: environment or manager to review it and keep it top
Speaker 1: of mind. And I was proactive with that as a seller,
Speaker 1: and I was proactive with that as a sales leader.
Speaker 1: That accountability check in and elite sellers they really know
Speaker 1: that pipeline generation today is quota protection for tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: so that is kind of the mindset and some of
Speaker 1: the things that you can do to really make sure
Speaker 1: it stays top of mind. You got to block that
Speaker 1: time that goes back to the you got to own
Speaker 1: your calendar. And if you don't own your calendar, then
Speaker 1: other things are going to infiltrate into that space, and
Speaker 1: then pipeline will be one of those things that goes
Speaker 1: off to the wayside. Elite sellers don't let that happen.
Speaker 3: I love that quota protection. That's a good mindset to
Speaker 3: have too. Right, you mentioned being proactive, and I know
Speaker 3: that we talk about being proactive in planning your day,
Speaker 3: and you talked about it at the top of what
Speaker 3: those elite sellers do elite behaviors. As a manager, I mean,
Speaker 3: how many times have we said I'd like you to
Speaker 3: be more proactive?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Okay, but what does that mean? So how do you
Speaker 3: coach reps to be proactive and avoid reactive selling for
Speaker 3: lack of yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, productive planning. In my opinion, it's the foundation of
Speaker 1: consistent performance. You know. It allows that rep to anticipate
Speaker 1: objections and stakeholder needs. It aligns internal resources before there's
Speaker 1: a problem or challenge, and allows you to stay ahead
Speaker 1: of renewal or expansion opportunities. So when you're coaching to
Speaker 1: avoid that reactive selling mindset, you've got to have weekly
Speaker 1: planning sessions, right, it helps the reps map out the
Speaker 1: week with pipeline generation, deal strategy, preparation, all things that
Speaker 1: go into your week, deal reviews, right with a forward
Speaker 1: looking lens on those deal reviews, focusing on the next steps,
Speaker 1: the gaps, the stakeholders, the engagement, leveraging medic as an
Speaker 1: example to do that, pipeline health check ins. We just
Speaker 1: talked about that a couple of minutes ago, about making
Speaker 1: sure that you're having these health checks on your pipeline,
Speaker 1: whether it's peer or leader led ensuring the reps that
Speaker 1: aren't just working on what's hot, but they're building what's next,
Speaker 1: knowing what's coming down the pipe for what's next. And
Speaker 1: then the last thing I would say is scenario planning.
Speaker 1: What if this deal stalls, what do I do? What's
Speaker 1: the backup plan going to be for the pipeline generation?
Speaker 1: In other words, do I have something that can fill
Speaker 1: the gap if this thing stalls. There's nothing more frustrating
Speaker 1: as a REP and as a leader that you've got
Speaker 1: your quota, you've got your forecast, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden the deal stalls. You miss something in the
Speaker 1: qualification of the opportunity and your pipeline isn't strong enough
Speaker 1: that you can fill that gap with another opportunity, And
Speaker 1: so you've got to be thinking, what if this does stall,
Speaker 1: what is the backup plan? What am I going to
Speaker 1: be able to fill that gap with? So those are
Speaker 1: again some of the planning sessions, deal reviews, health checks
Speaker 1: on your pipeline, and scenario planning, or just a handful
Speaker 1: of things that you know as we're thinking about how
Speaker 1: to get out of that reactive selling stage.
Speaker 3: Always forward thinking, Yeah, and some great questions to ask
Speaker 3: ourselves as we're in that process. If I am a
Speaker 3: manager and I see my people struggling with this, you
Speaker 3: gave some good tips here, But I'd like to talk
Speaker 3: a little bit about micromanaging, right, because if you are
Speaker 3: constantly asking about like in the weeks with your people,
Speaker 3: it can almost appear like you're overbearing your micro managing.
Speaker 3: So as a manager, how can I add value? How
Speaker 3: can I be an asset to my team without micromanaging
Speaker 3: their day?
Speaker 1: Yeah, really good question, and it's such a big topic.
Speaker 1: We could probably have a call just on this topic
Speaker 1: alone if we haven't already.
Speaker 3: Rachel Oh next podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Zach, the key is the coach, not control, And
Speaker 1: I think we fall into this mindset because of the
Speaker 1: pressures that we're all under as sales leaders to try
Speaker 1: to control the situation, and that we've got to coach
Speaker 1: on it. And so the first thing I'll say is,
Speaker 1: and this is where the topic can get bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger. We've got to take the time to
Speaker 1: understand what is the value we can provide to that
Speaker 1: account executive, what's important to them, just like we do
Speaker 1: with our customers. We've got to provide value versus talking
Speaker 1: about features and functions. What's going to be valuable in rachel.
Speaker 1: Use you as example, if we're going to have a
Speaker 1: session together, what is the thing that's going to be
Speaker 1: most important for you? How are you going to see
Speaker 1: value out of this? Because it's different for each person,
Speaker 1: so it's critical to understand what is the value What
Speaker 1: does this person need or want from me that I
Speaker 1: can help them get there? And once we do that,
Speaker 1: we can then help the reps prioritize on impact not urgency.
Speaker 1: Where's the biggest impact that we're going to make. And
Speaker 1: we can do that by offering different frameworks for time management,
Speaker 1: all all kinds of matrixes that are out there and
Speaker 1: how do we make sure we're getting pipeline generation and
Speaker 1: build blocks. They're important again, understanding what is going to
Speaker 1: be the most critical thing for each individual and finding
Speaker 1: out where their value is that we're going to get
Speaker 1: from this. And I think a couple other things that
Speaker 1: I would share with this is we've got a model
Speaker 1: to behavior, right, what is my own calendar strategy or
Speaker 1: what pipeline generation rituals have I used before? Or account
Speaker 1: methodologies that I've used before. And the last thing is,
Speaker 1: and this is so important, because we're so good, we
Speaker 1: get we're just ingrained with catching people doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: We got to catch people doing the right thing. Celebrate
Speaker 1: the reps who are demonstrating strong planning habits right, Celebrate
Speaker 1: that and expose that to other people, and expose them
Speaker 1: to other people. So by creating some of that accountability,
Speaker 1: doing it without this tremendous pressure. Everybody's got pressure on
Speaker 1: them right now with trying to generate the revenue or
Speaker 1: trying to generate more pipeline, trying to hit the numbers
Speaker 1: that they need to hit. So having things like lightweight
Speaker 1: check ins, what's your pipeline generation focused for the week,
Speaker 1: encourage peer sharing, let the reps learn from each other's
Speaker 1: workflows and how they're using some of the things that
Speaker 1: they have. The strategic deal reviews we mentioned before focused
Speaker 1: on medic and shareholder mapping and next steps and close
Speaker 1: plans in order to help them get there. And rather
Speaker 1: than asking did you do your pipeline generation this week,
Speaker 1: ask them the you know something different, like walk me
Speaker 1: through your pipeline pipeline generation plan. Have them explain it
Speaker 1: to you, just like we want the customer and explain
Speaker 1: to us what's their strategy, Where are they going? Where
Speaker 1: do they want to be when they get somewhere. Try
Speaker 1: to eliminate some of the internal meetings that we set
Speaker 1: as leaders. Oh gosh, right, Like are there meetings that
Speaker 1: we're having that could be communicated via email or slack?
Speaker 1: We don't have to have a meeting just to have
Speaker 1: a meeting. And then, you know, leverage your enablement team
Speaker 1: to provide the right templates and sequences and account plans.
Speaker 1: And I'll say it again, celebrate the wins, the small wins,
Speaker 1: not just the big they want a deal, they want
Speaker 1: an account, but the small wins. They moved it to
Speaker 1: the next stage. They got the meeting that they were
Speaker 1: trying to get so on and so forth, those behaviors
Speaker 1: will go a long way.
Speaker 3: I think that's a great takeaway. Celebrate the wins. But
Speaker 3: I love the other concept you brought up about lightweight
Speaker 3: check ins. Right just picking up the phone saying hey,
Speaker 3: what's going on? What can I help you with? How's
Speaker 3: your pipeline generation going this week? It comes from a
Speaker 3: place of I want to help rather than have you
Speaker 3: generated pipeline this week? Like those light check ins can
Speaker 3: give you the information you need to coach effectively, but
Speaker 3: without seeming overbearing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. And I like to think of
Speaker 1: this as like our role as sales leaders. One is
Speaker 1: the coach and develop the people around us. But to
Speaker 1: create an environment where when we're talking about something like planning,
Speaker 1: it's valued and rewarded, not enforced. And that's a different mindset, right.
Speaker 1: Enforcing it feels micromanagy, and we've set it over and
Speaker 1: over again. People don't want to be told what to do,
Speaker 1: but they don't want to be led that art of persuasion.
Speaker 1: And so if we can take a concept like planning
Speaker 1: and make it value and rewarded, then people are gonna
Speaker 1: be more inclined to want.
Speaker 3: To follow along and do that exactly, John Boney, great
Speaker 3: bottom line, Thank you for joining me for this conversation today.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me once again. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Look forward to the next one.
Speaker 3: Awesome. Yes, and we're going to do it on micromanaging.
Speaker 3: I already wrote it down, all right. Thank you, John,
Speaker 3: and thank you to all of you for listening to
Speaker 3: the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
Speaker 4: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 4: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 4: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the
Speaker 4: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 4: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 4: Let's get started. Visit us at forcemanagement dot com.
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