Start planning for tomorrow each afternoon. Every minute of preplanning you do today in preparation for tomorrow will save you five to 10 minutes in the execution of each activity you must complete tomorrow.
Let’s take today for example. At 4:30 P.M., I want you to take out a legal pad. With a straightedge, draw a line down the paper one-third of the way into the pad from the left side. Your paper should now have two columns, divided one-third, two-thirds. On the top of the paper in the first column, write Phone. In the second, larger column, write Company Name/Contact Name. (You can create a separate column for the two if you prefer.) My suggestion is to place your “A” company calls first and then follow them with you “B” list. You should try to list 40 people you are going to try to call tomorrow. The ones you do not get to tomorrow will get transferred to the next day’s afternoon to-do list.
Again, you list the “A” contacts first followed by those on your “B” list. Collectively, this list will contain the people with whom you will spend the bulk of your morning trying to catch up, connect, and set up an initial face to face meeting. Because of its efficiency, this is the primary method all major corporate successful business development executives.
Your “A” calls will be those where you are following up on an actual contact or lead. You have already spoken to this person, have been referred to them by someone, or must find out from them for a fact that an open position exists. These are your “hot” calls. They are you MUST calls.
Your “B” calls will consist of those individuals with whom, at this point, you do not have a relationship, or you lack valid information that any openings exist at their company. You do, however, have a cAppearanceontact name you need to validate. These are you SHOULD call.
Your “C” calls are the ones for which you Company/Contact Name column contains the least amount of information. In this case, you don’t even have the name of a potential decision maker. These are the calls that it would NICE to follow through on, but only if you have the time to do so.
Bear in mind that this is a classic case of the 80/20 rule. 20% of your daily activities will account for 80% of your new business search results. For the best results, remember to focus on you top 20%.
A realistic goal here is to make five valid good, solid contacts with high-quality information per day. This aim, however, is easier said than done.
Studies have shown that fewer than 3% of all people have clear, concise goals, let alone have written them down. Further complicating matters, fewer than 1% ever re-evaluate or revise their goals. When you write down your daily business goals, you program your subconscious to keep them in mind through- out the day.
generality into a meaningful specific.
Next week, I will continue to share with you my Time Management Success: Tricks of the Trade, Part 4.