Planning and Intention crush "winging it"
Don't let Jerry McGuire fool you.
Jerry McGuire was good in the living room. (Yes, I’m quoting a movie from 1996).
“You know, I was good in a living room. They'd send me in there, and I'd do it alone.”
Jerry was the master at winging it.
Most good sales reps can wing it. Sharp, articulate, they feel their way through calls, they have an intuitive sense on where to take the prospect next.
In some cases listening to a great rep uncover needs and bring the prospect down the path and help them make the buying decision to go with your company is like watching an incredible story unfold before your eyes.
True craftmanship. And when it ends in a win-win, it’s so fun to see.
But here’s the catch. To do that you have to be on a call or in a meeting with a qualified prospect.
All of the hard work that went into Jerry having a “very big day” is not shown in the movie, but I believe it was behind the scenes scrap to win business.
To have very big days in your business.
To create value for those prospects that make the choice to use your company.
You must be intentional and plan your prospecting.
Decent reps plan their prospecting out for the week.
Good reps plan their prospecting out for the day.
Great reps plan their prospecting by the hour.
As sales leaders it’s our job to help them with their planning an intention — I’ve already shared designing your perfect prospecting day in a prior article — with a pdf you can download for free.
Here is what designing a perfect prospecting hour looks like.
Set you intention and goal for the hour and write it down:
Intention:
I’m going to designate an hour for prospecting for 3-4pm and I’m going to focus on (fill in the blank) — Suggestions: Calling all of my commitment stage deals, calling prospects to set appointments, calling all my current clients to ask for referrals and
Goal:
My goal is to make 25 dials and get 5 connects.
Plan your hour — it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to set your intention/goal and map out your hour. Prep and have your prospect list ready - don’t waste time looking up numbers etc… do this in advance!
3:00pm - 3:20pm — 10 dials (5 call blocks - meaning once I commit to dialing number 1 I dial 1-5 no breaks), get up stretch my legs, do it again.
3:20-3:25pm — notes from past 10 dials in CRM and have next 10 numbers queued up.
3:25-3:45pm — 10 dials - same as above
3:45-3:50pm — notes and prep for last 5 dials
3:50-4pm — last 5 dials
Maybe you left 25 voicemails, maybe you connected with 7 people and didn’t complete the 25 calls because you were talking to prospects, maybe you have time left over… in the end what counts is that you put yourself in a better position to win the hour.
This example uses calls, but it can really be anything, email outreach, social connects - however you are engaging your prospects.
In my observation of reps over the past 20 years, reps that plan their hours do more prospecting than their peers (the hard part of sales), they have more conversations with clients and prospects and they earn more commission.
If you want to take this to the next level - whatever your intention is for the hour, make sure you have a common theme you are discussing (market conditions, a specific pain point you are seeing across the prospect pool).
Make real connections.
Create experiences for your prospects that are memorable help you stand out.
Be good in the living room.
But to get there you need to plan and have intention.
Happy Selling.
Joe