Jumpstart Your Sales Career with This To-Do List By nature, most salespeople are not organized. They are multi-taskers who start activities and take on new projects as they come. However, the best salespeople create daily activities and discipline themselves over time to stick to the to-do list, and complete tasks every day, every year. Here is the daily routine that I follow: 1) Make your bed and read your morning emails before you leave the house. There is a reason why the military makes a big deal about not only making their beds as soon as they get up but making them correctly. This exercise will start your day feeling accomplished and will help trigger you to adopt other successful habits. It’s also pleasing to come home to a made bed, ready for a good night’s rest. Next, by reading your emails before you leave the house, you won’t bog yourself down with reading emails as you enter the office. Clear your inbox first thing in the morning, so you can focus as soon as you get to your desk. 2) Perform a self-reflection ritual before you start your day. Mine includes thinking of all the things I’m grateful for. It may sound cliché, but it really helps ground me and remind me of the blessings I have in my life. Next, I think about how I can learn something different today. I list out the things I want to accomplish and the things I want to change. This list may include things like personal weight goals, restating in your mind your weekly, monthly and annual financial goals, or thinking about relationships in your life you’d like to strengthen whether it be with an old friend, a spouse, or a parent. This is important because you start your day with a need to succeed while also setting aside time to be humble. It’s all about balance. 3) Go to the gym before you go to work. Your health is everything– no matter what age you are. Your health is your wealth. It’s important to make your health, your body, and your nutrition a priority. I work out 90 minutes, five days a week. I leave the house at 6 AM and get to the gym by 6:45 AM. I finish my exercises by 8:15 AM, and I’m out the door and back at my house by 9 AM. More than just the health benefits, it also reinforces my ability to remain disciplined in my approach to each day. 4) Leverage technology to help you. As you head to the office, try using Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant to help you send out text messages while you drive to your office. Getting yourself in the swing of working before you get in the office will help you avoid that lag that occurs when you finally get to your desk. That lag before you get started could cost you up to half of your day –– without realizing it! What great salespeople seem to remember is the total number when they divide their annual income goal into an hourly number. If you plan to make $350.00 an hour, then half an hour of non-production costs you $175.00 each time you do it. That’s one way to stay motivated. 5) Plan your day, the day before. A comprehensive to-do list will help you plan out the following day, the night before. It helps if you can break down your day into categories. Mine are: current business, new business, Big Hour (working on deals that are more out of reach but with big financial gains) personal business, company business, and then I end with “catch up” at the end my day where I set aside time to finish what I didn’t get to. If you can master this list of daily priorities, you will be well on your way to a successful career in sales. -- Hans Hansson, Starboard Commercial/TCN Worldwide
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