What tools/software do salespeople use to stay motivated/productive?

By Zeeva Viola | July 11, 2017

Question:

Everyone has a CRM of some sort but I’m looking more for a piece of software that would allow for goal-setting and accountability with a sales focus (my use case is enterprise software). Any apps out there helpful with this?

Answer:

On the software side, check out “The Daily Practice” (http://tdp.me/about).

On the “good ole’ traditional” side:

• Have your call list prepared and printed in hard copy. This will give a targeted list so you aren’t wasting time digging around in your CRM for the contact info of people you want to call next.  Plus there is a 95% probability that you’ll get distracted while in your CRM with something else – another lead comes in, you realized you hadn’t called so-and-so in a month, you see that you forgot to include the URL of an account in their profile and decide to take two seconds to do that. These are all unnecessary distractions.

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• Use post it notes so that you can see your progress. Develop a color coding system if you need to – green for calls that lead to a successful conversation, yellow for a contact made but without a significant or successful conversation, blue for voicemails.  Post these on your wall or window so that you can see your progress during the time block. When you’re done, use the Post-it notes as a checklist of follow-up requirements for yourself. Whatever your chose, develop some sort of system that enables you to see the results of your daily work.

• Set up a reward system for yourself. Once you hit 20 calls, reward yourself with 5 more calls after you get back from your walk. Then buy a deluxe coffee instead of your regular small drip for making your 20 calls.  I bring my workout clothes and go to the gym or on a run after a call block.  You should be too mentally tired to do anything terribly cerebral, so this is a great time to re-energize for the rest of the day and feel good about yourself. Make a pact with your development team or office mates – tell them that if you make 20 calls that include 10 contacts and 3 demos scheduled for later in the week, you’ll take them to lunch.  Believe me, whether your office mates work with you or not, they’ll be pestering you to do more calls.  Everyone likes a free lunch even if it’s a burrito from the local shop.  Even better, you can make it a working lunch and go with a purpose and a topic to discuss.

 
**This Q&A article was originally posted on Quora. Check out Scott’s Quora page here.