“Either run the day, or the day runs you.”
This quote from Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker perfectly sums up why a well-managed weekly sales calendar is such an important and powerful tool for sales success.
Have you ever been to the supermarket without a list and came back without the very thing you went there for? Have you ever set out to visit a new destination without a map, certain you know where to go, only to find yourself lost?
A weekly sales calendar gives you goals to achieve each week, but also the focus and motivation to achieve them.
Write down your goals
And by that we mean all of them. The key performance indicators or financial targets required for your job, but also your own aspirational goals – both personal and work related. Start with the big picture: What do you want to have achieved in one or even five years from now? Then break it down into smaller weekly goals that will help you get there.
Writing your goals down turns them into a plan. Keep your big picture goals somewhere you can easily see them, but it’s your weekly goals where you get the work done. Every week copy your weekly goals into your sales planner and schedule tasks that will help you achieve them.
If you have a running list of leads to follow make sure it is updated with the status of each lead, and copied into your calendar each week.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
– Tony Robbins
Break everything down
Rather than just a long to-do list that covers the whole week, break your tasks down into actionable, scheduled items.
Start with your known appointments and “must-dos” which might include jobs with a fixed deadline or that others are waiting on you to complete.
From your list of leads choose a reasonable number to follow up with and schedule a time to do it in your calendar. Earlier in the week is a good idea, as it gives you time to follow up if someone’s not available at first.
If you have an important meeting or call, make a note in your calendar about what you need to achieve in that meeting, and spend some time prepping what you’ll need to have with you and what you’ll need to ask. Keep those notes in your weekly diary for easy reference,
Schedule in time for things you want to achieve but might not be directly related to a sale. It might be communicating with your social media following, or planning your brand strategy. These are the things that are easy to push off your list but are important for growing your sales profile or business, so schedule them in.
It’s also a good idea to have an evolving list of “nice to haves”. If your schedule changes with appointment cancellations or something falls through, having a back-up list means you can still use that time productively.
Rinse and repeat
Choose a time to review the past week’s calendar and plan ahead for the following week. Choose a time that best suits you, it could be Friday afternoon or late on a Sunday evening. Just choose a time that means by the start of the next week you are off to a productive start straight away.
Inevitably there will be some things you haven’t achieved from the following week. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just think about why you weren’t able to achieve it. If there is something roadblocking you, or causing you to procrastinate see if you can break that task into smaller, more manageable tasks and schedule those in for the following week.
