Sales Tips: Setting Yourself up for Success Everyday
I want to bring things to a little bit of a lighter conversation this week. Over the last several weeks friends and Perfrm members have asked how I stay on top of everything. Well my first response is I'm so glad it looks that way from the outside looking in but in reality I only feel like I'm on top of everything about 50% of the time. There are somethings I've put into place that keep me organized and prepared. I'm not a super organized person inherently so these routines have taken practice.
1.) Do as much in advance as possible. If you follow me on social media you have probably noticed I set up my Monday communications on Friday, and I spend a good amount of time on Sunday getting ready for my week. I started with very small changes, like setting up an email sequence on Friday afternoon to start on Monday morning to reach out to "lost leads", doing my laundry and putting it away, and grocery shopping on Sunday's. Now these small changes have evolved into a well practiced routine. My Friday afternoons are filled with using automated tools like HubSpot and Buffer so my Monday's are that much smoother. On Sunday's I now do laundry, pick out all my outfits for the week including for the gym, grocery shop and meal prep, and I set up wherever I plan on writing on Monday morning.
2.) Learn to love your calendar. For years I would start using a planner then a couple months in I wouldn't even know where it was. We carry around a very simple calendar in our smart phones every minute of the day? Learn to use it and follow it. If you aren't a schedule person start with just your calendar. I live by my calendar now. I time block almost every hour of every day. There's never a question about what I should be doing and it's easy to see if I've missed something that day. I use my google calendar, a bando planner, a daily checklist, a whiteboard and a master time block spreadsheet that I found after following Alyssa Coleman on instagram. Yes, every single one of my friends makes fun of my schedule but they all also know to contact me on Sunday's if they want to see me that week and they know when they can reach me.
3.) Set boundaries. I can't stress this enough. It goes for every part of your life. Start with clients, let them know your available hours during the week and that you will answer all non urgent calls and emails within 24 hours. Trust me, your clients have boundaries and they will absolutely respect yours. You will feel so much more sane not trying to answer every email within minutes of receiving it.
4.) Make time for yourself every single day. This one has been the hardest thing for me to start putting into practice, it has also been the one thing that has kept me from burnout. There are days where me time is a 15 minute guided meditation before I go to bed and some days this is actually putting down work at 8pm and reading a few chapters of a book. On occasion I'll actually take a few hours to go shop with a friend or go on a date.
5.) Get Physical. I separate this from time for myself because I believe mental and physical health are individually exceptionally important. You choose what this looks like for you. Not everyone wants to go to the gym everyday or at all. Find something you love that you helps you check out of work mode for at least 30 mins a day.
These are just a few of the things that I've learned help me "keep it together". Please let me know in the comments if you would like more tips like this or would like me to share more tools I use. Have an amazing Monday.