Time Blocking and Batch Processing – 2 Sales Productivity Accelerants

I’m an avid listener to the Max Revenue Podcast with Micah Salas and Trey Shields.  I’ve listened to every show they ever made.  I love the slogan “all aboard the pirate ship”.  I loved the mystery of “Who F’ is Max Revenue”? 

And from the very beginning, they have challenged their listeners that anyone can build a book of business with cold outbound prospecting and sell based on Due Diligence.

Awesome.  I’m sold.  I was ready to buy a pirate flag and attach it to the back of my car.

All it takes is 40 cold calls a day. 

Hold on.  What?  Seriously?  Put a stop order on that pirate flag, I’ve got a problem.

Don’t these people understand that I’ve got other stuff to do?

I’ve got customers that require attention.  I’ve got office responsibility.  And do they have any idea how many emails I get?  Lord, the emails.  I’ve got to answer all those emails, and I’ve got to do it quickly lest people think I don’t care about them.

At least that’s what I thought initially.

I had to solve a riddle.  How do I operate most efficiently?

For a year, I struggled to make 100 cold calls in a week.  It felt like a major accomplishment to hit 100 calls in a week.  It was still way more than anyone else in my office, but still fell way short of the 40 a day prescribed by Dr. Max.

How to get there?

It had to make 3 changes to how I operate. 

First, is getting better at saying no, which I’ve written about before.

Second, I started Time Blocking.

Third, I started Batch Processing.

Suddenly, it felt like I had been stuck in traffic and years and turned onto an open road.

What are those things, you ask? And how will they help with sales productivity?

Fast Cars look they're going fast, even when they're parked

Time Blocking

Nick Aube showed me this idea, and it blew my mind.

Time blocking is the practice of structuring every week the same way.  Every week you accomplish the same tasks during the same time periods.

For example, Monday morning is planning.  Prep for every meeting.  Call to confirm meetings.  Conduct Administrative task.  Then, Monday afternoon make 40 cold calls.  At 4pm, close out emails, then complete paperwork. 

Then, every Monday from now until I’m no longer a salesperson by trade, that’s what Monday mornings looks like.

On Tuesday, I spend 8:30 – 9:30 mapping out my day.  Then at 9:30, I make calls until 12.  The afternoons are for qualifying calls, presentations, client calls, etc.  By 4:00, I start my wind down.

Each day has its own routine.

What difference does this make?

There are a couple of efficiency killers that really limit our production.

First, we are only capable of making a limited number of decisions in a day.  What do I wear?  What do I eat?  What should I work on now?  Who should I call?

If you’re constantly making decisions about what to do next during the day, you’ll drain your mental energy deciding what you should work on next. 

Second is multi-tasking.  No one is good at multitasking.  The best, most productive work takes place when you have the white space to really settle into a project and be uninterrupted. Email inboxes are the ultimate flow killer.

Think about it, what days feel the absolute worst?

The days that felt jam packed from the beginning of the day to the very end, but you couldn’t exactly say what you worked on.  Not only are they exhausting mentally, but it doesn’t feel like any progress was made.

Stop doing that.  Trust me.  There is a better world for you.  Block your time starting at the beginning of the week.

But if someone important asks for a meeting during a time block that doesn’t fit your schedule?

I’ve got a couple thoughts here.   First, is that rules are meant to be broken.  Don’t lose a deal or your job because you refused to take a meeting Friday at 11 am.

The key to preventing this is to take initiative about when the meeting should take place.   Instead of waiting for someone else to offer which time they are available, try suggesting “I’ve got these 2 time slots available.  Which works for you?”

If that feels aggressive, think about the last time you called your Doctor’s office.  Did they ever ask you when you feel like coming in?  Or did they suggest to you a time slot that that is currently available?  Did that feel like it was intrusive? 

Maybe a little.  But we accept it as a fact of life. 

The second thought is to schedule everything possible.  Unscheduled calls can derail everything.  For me, I schedule calls with my coworkers, customer service reps, underwriters, marketing reps, bosses, everyone.  I try to make everything work within my prearranged time blocks.

It doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it works enough to help me stay on schedule.

Batch Processing

When you set up your time blocks, focus on one thing at a time.  Let your brain settle into one project.

For me, I have a couple core projects that require focus.

Cold Calling, writing blog posts, editing videos, paperwork, meeting with clients and customers.

When I’m in the moment, I do everything I can to stay in that moment and focused on the one topic.

Shut down the email.  Focus on one task.  Allow my brain to settle into a groove and find a flow.

For me, that was the difference between editing one video in an hour and a half and editing three videos.

When you allow your brain to settle in like that, it’s like all your thoughts gain velocity and clarity.  It’s only when you allow other projects to creep into your mind that it feels like everything slows down.

It’s the equivalent of riding in a Lamborghini at 100 miles an hour and hitting a speed bump.  Not a good feeling, and definitely not good for the undercarriage of the car.

Conclusion

Bringing things back to my friends Dr. Max, Trey and Micah, I realized their prescription was very attainable.  But I couldn’t hit those numbers if I didn’t change anything.

What I had to change was my workflow.  What I was trying to do before was the equivalent of attempting to drive 100 miles an hour on a cobblestone road in a Lamborghini.  My butt and jaw hurts just thinking about it.

Time blocking and batch processing are the equivalent of an open and smoothly paved road.

Do those two things, and you’ll wonder why you haven’t been speeding all your life.