2. Business Cards  Take 100 business cards and pass out along the way. You never know who will be so thankful that your paths crossed. A great habit is to pass out 5 cards a day, and while you are on vacation let your journey take your card distribution into new territories!

3. Cd’s and Tapes  There are so many motivational and educational tapes you can listen to as you drive, fly and relax. This is a great time to soak in new information or review old information. You are on vacation, so don’t act on it; just savor it!

4. Books  Take one book and really get it read! Rather than packing five that you “hope to get to,” be serious about one and enjoy reading it.

5. Ideas  Before you go, pick something you would like to discover or get new ideas about. Take the questions with you as conversation starters and gather information from those around you. Pick their brains. They have great ideas and you might be able to glean new resources and information that will be greatly applicable when you return.

6. Perspective  Look at your business from a new perspective. Look at your business from the framework of relaxing on the beach, enjoying the breathtaking mountains, etc. What is possible here? What can you take from this view and apply to or bring into your business?

7. Explore  Look at phone books, ads, posters and businesses around you. Check out the needs and saturation of your market. Is your vacation spot your next target area?

8. Focus  Evaluate your goals and progress. Where have you been and what do you want? Revise your goals and set new ones. While you are away from the office it is a great time to do some longer “thinking” activities that you do not have time for when you are in the chaos and rush of normal schedules and business life!

9. Journal  Spend some time just writing down and capturing your ideas. What are you learning and noticing? What do you want to do differently when you get back? Brainstorm something new. Write a top ten to keep your mind sharp. Writing is powerful. Even if you never look at the entry again, there is an amazing connection in the act of writing thoughts down and remembering them later!

10. Keep Motivation Pieces  Look for an item (postcard, picture, souvenir, etc.) that is motivational to take back with you into your working day. Bring your trip and the inspiration from it back with you!

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

Remember to allow yourself a true rest, clear up the clutter before you go and have a plan for how you will handle coming back, productively use the slower season in the office, and tidy up loose ends at home. When you are active and intentional during this slower season, employing the strategies that we’ve discussed here today, you too will have a winning, successful year!

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

To assist you, I want to give you strategies on how to maximize this “season” when you or others (clients, co-workers, vendors, etc.) are away, so that you are prepared to charge for the rest of the year!

• Rest. The concept of periodicity means that you allow your body a time to rest, re-engage, and recharge (or train) so that you achieve maximum energy and the results that you want during the periods that require you to push harder. If you continue at 150 mph 24 hours per day/7 days per week, you will burn out. More importantly, you will not get the results you want. So, plan time each summer for a period of rest. (For you workaholics out there, rest means no voicemail, no email, no clients, no “work mode”, no initiatives that are not wholly enjoyable. Turn off work 100% while on vacation! If you do, your ability to run full out when you return will be twice as great.)
• Clean up. The days before you leave on vacation are a great time to make a game plan for yourself when you return. Your departure date is a deadline that’s not likely to move. Start by challenging yourself to sort the emails, do all of the follow-ups, and close the open loops before you leave. As you do this, make a list for when you return of what you will do next. If you want to be most productive, schedule what you will do when, so you can resume your working habits quickly when you return.

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

A few tips the book emphasizes are:

• Manage your energy, not your time
• Downtime is key for your success
• Rituals help to maintain focus
• Purpose fuels performance
• Work in sprints (small bursts of focused energy)

Here are 5 strategies to EMPOWER your productivity through Organization. This is organization of the mind.

1. Brain dump. What is on your mind? What needs to be done and how much time will it take? What can be delegated and what do you have to do?

2. Mind map. Push yourself to think beyond your brain dump, what else is there? You can write several columns with these headings or make circles with these in the middle and then list or make “lines” off your circles with what else might need to be considered: Look at work (marketing, business development, clients, staff, administration, finance, etc.), family, home/car, volunteer activities, meetings/events, friends/fun, money, health, and any others that have significant action items.

3. Park it. Use the concept of a “parking lot” to put things that are concepts or ideas, not urgent or important, and can be done later. Keep this as a post-it, task list or sheet of paper, as new things pop into your mind, you can jot them down to manage later. (These are non-task items)

4. Plan & Schedule. Mark the items that are very important or urgent and then plot out the next day or two of when you will do what and leave the rest of the list. Specify when you will do what so you can work through your list in a disciplined fashion. Plan blocks of time to manage phone calls, interruptions and other things that might get you off your schedule.

5. Book mark. Use a future to do list or a planning tool like Outlook to assign the other tasks that will be handled in a few days, next week, or in the future. This way you can get them out of your brain and know that you will not forget them. Our minds are like computers. The more windows and things open, the slower it runs. Likewise, the more things you try and hold in your mind, the slower you run.

Get everything out. Put it in the proper place (parking lot idea list, on a day schedule or bookmarked in a task list) and get going on the task at hand. Stay focused and do not divert. You will be amazed at how you make progress and how good you feel!

This model might work for some, but for many it leads to reactionary cycles that are unproductive and lead to a life of 24/7 work life with burnout and no balance. Things fall in the cracks, promises and follow-thru is compromised and it feels like you never quite have enough time.

Today, one of my clients, who is working on mastering sales productivity, and I reviewed his keys to success. These points are what he attributes to his success in his upper end service based sales (high-end design-build landscaping) and are also relevant to many others… as they are basic productivity keys:

1. Do a power hour to get your important things done. This is that one hour each AM to focus NOT on your to do list, rather on the important things you need to do but often do not “get to”.

2. Ask for and know peoples budget. Sometimes this can seem like a question you want to wait to ask and might not be right for all professions, however, it is a great qualifying question. Your goal is to sell. If your buyer has no dollars for the purchase it really doesn’t matter how great of a sales person you are. While you might squeak a sale out of a person like this, the chances are there are other more ripe prospects. Spend your time on people who can afford and are ready to buy your product.

3. Qualify your jobs. Don’t waste time with unqualified jobs. Again, different sales models require different approaches, but if your target is a big fish, don’t fill your time with small fish. If your target is small fish, then do small fish activity. The key is to know what is a qualified lead for you and pursue those. In the world with many demands on your time, this is one way to work to spend your time with prospects that have greater potential. It is a very simple concept, but many sales people move forward without qualifying the lead. Write down 3 attributes of your buying clients. Use this to help you qualify hot leads from cold leads.

4. Know your VALUE proposition. Why should people spend money with you? What makes you different than others? What makes your product or service worth it. As a sales person you have to believe in what you are selling and you have to be able to communicate the value or worth. It is a competitive market, what sets you apart from your competition?

5. Be persistent – ASK FOR THE SALE. Follow-up, don’t assume they are not interested, offer what you can do to help them to make a decisions. (Is there something you are questioning, what is keeping you from making a decision, are you ready to move to the next step, how can I help in the decision making process?)

6. Have a set schedule of meeting blocks. Know when you met with people so you can easily set follow-up appointments. When you wrap up your sales call, you should be able to set a follow-up appointment. We are all busy, if you don’t do this it can take weeks and months to secure another meeting, meanwhile you might lose the prospect to another faster salesperson. When are your blocks?

7. 1/3 prospecting; 1/3 sales; 1/3 production. Know the key parts of your sales cycle and spend proportionate time in each quadrant. Often sales people are in the sales part and balls get dropped at the front and end of the cycle. If you are intentional about time in each, you will round out your day, improve the quality of your WHOLE sale cycle not just the actual sell. What are you 3 main parts? Are you spending time in each?

8. Write down all promises and commitments in calendar. Block time for yourself. Write promises down that you make. Have time to follow-up. You have lots you are thinking about. Your word is important; don’t really on your memory to ensure you make it happen. What time do you need to block for you?

9. Have balance (honor nights and weekends with family). Again different jobs are different, but have time for you and time for work. The 24/7 person looks like a super star out of the gate, but it is hard to maintain the pace. Think about the long distance runner who sprints from the finish line, in order for you to maintain performance you must balance work and life. Your life allows you to work, so take care of it (health, family, energy, rejuvenation time, etc.) What time do you reserve for yourself/life?

10. Build a network / support team. Design strategic alliances and build your support team. Even if you work alone, there are relationships you can find where you “help each other out”. These are priceless. Who is your support team?

 Consider the points and the questions. Pick ones that will support you in being strategic with sales. All the best!

• What needs to change? (chaotically running from thing to thing)
• What would help me do better? (prioritizing, doing important things 1st, 1 hour of focus time with no distractions)
• List 3 things you what you want to start (from 8-9 don’t answer phone, 10 min. daily clean sweep, prioritizing my to do list)
• Consider having 10 daily habits. These are little actions that you take every day that do not take a lot of time, but in the long run save time. For example, each AM spend 10 min. and do a clean sweep of your desk or house. You will be amazed with how you can cut down on clutter and time spent doing paperwork when you take just 10 min. a day. Write these things somewhere you will see & do them daily!

3. Implement and stick to it! It takes 30 days of consistent implementation to solidify a new habit.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES

1. Attitude. What is your perspective on time? We each have 24 hours; the question is how will you spend yours? When we think we don’t have enough time – we rarely get things done, we just spend time complaining. When we are optimistic, prepared and focused – we often are surprised at what can be accomplished in a short period of time (power hours). Take control of your life. We like to blame other things, when really there is a lot we can do.

2. Self-discipline.

• Review and refine your plan; stay in action (10 minutes to plan your day, ½ hour to plan for the week, 1 hour to plan for the month).
• Keep your plan in front of you. Three times each week, set a timer for 10 minutes to review what is working and not. What do you need to change? Are you allocating time correctly? Do you have a margin of flexibility for the unexpected? Make adjustments to your plan and step into action.
• Keep moving. Whatever you do, DO SOMETHING and keep moving! Paralysis of analysis is a deadly time eater. Assess your plan to the best of your ability and move into action. The picture will be clearer the closer you get.
• Say No. There are many things that will pop up to grab your time and attention. Saying “no” is important. How? Be honest, tell people why (not excuses), provide other options/solutions; determine what you can do based on your priorities.

“The more you do of what you are doing, the more you’ll get of what you’ve got” -Unknown

Get excited about what you can do, grab your plan and get going! Do not put off tomorrow what can be done today!