7 Sales Habits That Save Me 4 Hours/Day

[Music] 28% that's the average amount of time someone like you spend selling each week according to sales s state of sales report that means the other 72% of the time is getting wasted on non- moneymaking activities so in today's video I'm going to share with you seven really simple easy sales habits that save me at minimum four plus hours a day that you can impl immediately so you can increase your selling time and earn more while actually working less hey I'm Marcus Shan founder of Bly Consulting Group in which we provide modern sales training coaching for reps and teams who can blow out your sales targets and earn a quar million dollars of 500k plus and become the elite sales Pro you've dreamed of and you stay the very end of this video you also learn the number one habit that I've instilled that has had the greatest impact on my productivity earnings and also mental health let's go ahead and Dive Right In now the very first one is document don't do and this saves me at least an hour plus every single day now what I used to do was I used to be very busy with something for instance I'd be in a prospecting block and for maybe two or 4 hours and then suddenly I remember I need to create a proposal for a proect I've been working on so I literally stop what I was doing and IID start working on proposal and before I knew it a couple hours go by and that initial plan I had for prospecting completely missed doing it and then I would say I'll try to do it tomorrow or if I do get it done I say oh okay I'm going to go and start prospecting now but it would take me so long just to get back into prospecting to you know open up my CRM to start making calls again that it just took me so much work to do that I would lose a lot of time just getting to that point maybe 30 minutes or even an hour just get back into it right I realized whenever I was doing something different ideas would come to my head things I had to do responsibilities from my personal life to professional life and it actually would distract me from what I was actually supposed to do which actually highest priority for that day so what I made a change to which I've been doing that for over a decade which is whenever I got an idea or inspiration or an action I needed to take would pop in my head I would document down to a very designated place instead so for example if I get a different content idea you know I'm going to go ahead I'm going to add it somewhere inside clickup which is the tool that I use for different content ideas if I have an idea for a specific task I need to get done I would go ahead and add it right into my task on Google task so for example here you know even today I remember hey I need to send my assistant some swag I just ordered I want to make sure I get her information sent to properly I didn't just do it on the spot I add as a to-do right here for tomorrow to be done and this applies to really anything right so for example if I remember any talk to my assistant about something or maybe get an investment idea or maybe it's simple stuff as oh we need to get X type of groceries or whatever I use Apple notes which is really simple organized by folder and topics you see as an example right here so you know here I have different like folders that I use and then you know within each section there's different things I might cover for example here I'm on the grocery list so if I have different groceries I'm going to go ahead and uncheck it or I'm going to add it to the grocery list so I just don't need to think about it I make it as easy and simple as possible so I can just empty it out of my head this is such a simple habit it actually saves me quite a bit of time if I suddenly remember in my Pro prospecting block I need to create a proposal and for for some reason I already have my to-do list I could go into my to-do list and also create that to-do in there and also date stamp it as well or if I'm busy after after client meeting and I'm rushing to another client meeting and I remember oh we got to get Cheerios instead of trying to text my wife or forgetting about it I can go into my grocery list right here and I can just document get more Cheerios this applies really anything so I remember during Pro prospecting block that I need to have a conversation about time off with my manager instead of emailing him or slacking him right on spot or stopping what I'm doing and going over to him to as that time off I'll just put it into the notes for my one-onone with my manager so this way when we had a one-on ones I can discuss it with them then and ultimately the point is is I can just set it and forget it versus I used to just get pulled away from one thing another based on an email or stock I got or whenever I suddenly remembered something what we don't realize is all that context switching of going between task to task and jumping back and forth we stopped doing what we're supposed to be actually be doing we easily waste over an hour plus more a day at least I did personally for example in that prospecting block because I sto to make make that proposal it actually would cost me future pipeline because now I wasn't doing the things that drive future pipeline I see this actually with a lot of reps I talked to where they empty out their pipeline because they've been so busy working different accounts and Prospects and suddenly it's a new quar oh man I haven't prosp prospecting at all and that's a result of this level of context switching and not implement the document don't do number two plan tomorrow today this is this is a very simple very very powerful this easily saves me 30 plus minutes a day if not more so what I used to do was I'd wake up check my email and I'll get pulled into just all these other priorities this is from you know my sales leader my VP my director from prospects from other internal stakeholders of the company and I get pulled away so by the time I actually try to get any Ty of real deep work done it would be lunchtime that I want to take lunch and then that would basically eliminate like cause me to lose majority of my day and which basically just putting out fires so what I started doing years ago this has been really really powerful really really simple which is I simply plan tomorrow today and all I really do you kind of see right here so what I do now at the end of each day is I basically plan out the next day I review the following day see where there's white space on my calendar and instead of just arbitrarily choosing whatever topics or things I want to work on in that time I then review my quarterly plan and see what my biggest focuses for my plan this I use something called a 12-week year system combined with EOS and take a look at one of the biggest highest leverage things that may not be urgent but they will have the greatest impact on the overall business and I pull the most important highest leverage task and I fill in the next day so this is really powerful because now I don't need to think about what I need to do the next day so I can wake up whatever is on my calendar I can just execute cute on that next day and this ties into my next sales habit which is time blocking I time block everything onto my calendar and I actually use a physical timer for my blocks and what I found was when I didn't do this I found myself making decisions on the spot of what to actually work on and often times I hate to say it but I usually made a bad choice like I would be suddenly checking slack or I check emails or social media now I get pulled away and I waste 30 40 50 minutes and hour or more depending whatever it was instead I want to eliminate the chance of actually happening so I time box this allows me to be proactive so I can plan far ahead and I really want to have minimal white space as well cuz I want my day PL I just simply excuse for example you see here my account looks kind of crazy but it's all pre-planned out and part of it is really it starts with the end of the day planning for the next day now this is a completed week here but you'll see here I things completely built in from you know first thing in the morning reviewing metrics if I'm with my kiddo in the morning CU here we had camp out this day we preparing for Camp a whole thing in the morning right to prospecting to was Interview with the Salesforce deal to managing my CRM to creating content going with my team team meeting to plan tomorrow working out to making dinner to sit down with my family and each day is completely time blocked out and this makes it far easier for me I can just simply execute so for example if it was on the 26th right here if I've already pre-planned for the next day I plan that time block right here for the 27th this 27th is all planned out you'll see there very minimal white space so now I know when I wake up on the 27th my morning routine that I do first then I'm going to check all the metrics for my business then I'm going to check Zoho to see I'm my use client check in as well and then I was actually working on some improvements on a product line for a bit as well and then I prospected on social media for a little bit I did a midday work act I want to get my work e because my schedule be like so got a workout in right from there I had a smoothie and then I had a couple sales calls in after I want to prepare for some all BB opportunities so prepared for that and then after that was done I buildt a little buffer cuz sales calls it's unknown I'm going to run a little longer that's why there a little bit of white speed but very minimal and then I plan for for the next day and I check email as well then I picked up my son and hung out with my son we chill we had to all afternoon at that point then I made dinner and then hang the family after that so you can see this allows me to incorporate and be hyper efficient on the things that I actually want to get done so this way I can do my family stuff I can get my health stuff in like working out I can get like food stuff in this just allows me to be 100% focused on what's most important for me which is going to move the Neal in my life for today but also in the future as well so this next principle I called innovator time versus inspector time and this saves me easily 30 plus minutes a day if not an hour and the thing is I used to treat all time as EXA L the same but it's actually not the same and how you spend your time determines your output and your result so for instance if you are making say $100,000 a year the exact same amount of time as someone who's making a million doll a year or $500k a year or $2 million a year or $10 million a year we all the same amount of time but how you spend your time to determine your actual output and your results for the longest time I didn't think of this way but now I completely shifted my mindset and I look at time as in innovator time or inspector time and I actually color code and organize my time into two types of time so there's innovator time and innovator time is typically going to be like a free flow creation mode and typically makes money either uh now or in the future requires real deep work it's like that work you needs 100% of your energy Focus while you're doing it because it's actually hard to do on the flip side there's inspector time and inspector time is this is stuff that that has to get done it's important to do but it may not be the highest lever it definitely keeps The Wheels On The Bus moving if you will for example here I color code my account as you gets kind of crazy all the colors I got going on over here but for me I know what those colors mean so I break it down a few different categories but the overall holistic view is going to be innovator versus inspector time I break it also down into 10x thinking or 10x and 2x right so 2x is like it's going to help the business at least 2x 10x will take it to a whole another level so I'm innovator time right here which is 10x strategy thinking and planning so this is just deep thinking and planning it's actually kind of hard to do if you don't build time to do but I'm thinking intensely or working on something that I know is going to help the future it probably will have zero payoff right now but for the future is going to help quite a bit for example in a sales role for you to get really strategic this might be you sitting out and really mapping out what your next five years in your career is going to be like and really thinking it through and what skills you need to acquire to actually get to those points think about that how how often have you done that most people have not most people are just thinking about today this week this month this quarter best maybe this year if you're lucky but most people are not thinking 5 10 year increments so this is that deep thinking time and then I'm going to stay also on the on the 10x piece right here then there's the execution of the strategy so whatever I think about in this section right here I I have a time where I need to ex Strat it can't just be all I'm thinking big picture it's like hey what am I doing that's going to really help impr move the needle so for example if I go back to even this example here you know here we have the 10x execution time I'm improving the product right which is going to help maybe a little bit now but it's really for the future so I'm building out for the future gets me thinking that way then we have another innovator time right here this is like a 2X innovator time so I'm doing stuff that's going to probably produce results right now and in the future as well but it may not be like super longterm stuff for example like creating some content you know you could argue pay long-term dividends but I see it's going to help me right now in a little bit in the future as well probably next couple years as well so that's an example right there then I have another renovator time I call it text Rejuvenation so I get a look more granular so this is like things that I know is going to fill my bucket and rejuvenate me so it gives me more energy so I can really fully execute and show up an example here is family time as you can see right here anniversary dinner working outs really really big for me I like to work out time with friends right here really fills my bucket so stuff like that is I consider Rejuvenation time if I go back into inspector time right here as well this is like stuff that it's important to do it's going to help the business but it's a little more managerial more administr for example here this might be for you literally in putting your CRM it's not fun to do but obviously updating your notes and making sure your managing deals effectively in your pipeline is an important task that's going to help you close more business so it has to be done still kind of almost the ministry it's requireed as part of just being in the role so that's an example of something like that and then of course there's something in here which is it pulls out the innovator inspector time which is family schedules we have one single calendar here I also have S for my family as well so see I'm picking up like my kiddo or we have doctor's appointments here or we have an event stuff like that's also in there too number five hacked phone now this saves me I mean I'm saying 30 minutes but this probably easily sa me at least a couple hours a day if not more distraction is the enemy of progress and your phone is a big culprit every time you get a notification or vibrates it's distracting you from what needs to be done from an ipa's perspective that's income producing activities so I do a few things on my phone to set it up it helps me increase my productivity so for instance I have Auto do not disturb kicks on automatically from 7:00 a. m. to 5:00 p.

m. and the only people that basically call me or text me that get through are literally my family in case of emergencies or the school that's really it the other only other notification shows up as well as my calendar notification so I know I need to be certain places for certain meetings and that's it it just makes it so much easier on top of that all the apps that distract which are going to be primarily email slack social media those are on the fourth page on my phone so I have to S four times just get so I'm actually creating friction to make it harder to get to I have all notifications turned off as well for email suck and social media this way I'm not getting pink for every LinkedIn a comment or notification or DM emails or slack this way it doesn't distract me from when I actually need to get done this is even outside of the auto do not disturb what I also do is I have an auto red light filter on so my phone turns completely red on the screen it kicks on from 8:30 p. m.

to 6:30 a. m.