Kate Benjamin: How much time should I be making for prospecting?

TRANSCRIPT

If you don’t make the time for prospecting in your calendar, then it will not get done. Business owners, BDMs, PMs alike; if you do not have an appointment with the phone for time to contact, time to call, time to make those appraisals, then it will not happen. Next action out of today, if you are responsible for growing your business, and you don’t have time in your calendar for it, that is treated like an appointment, then you need to do this following this session.

For a full-time BDM, day-in, day-out, at least two 45-minute sessions in the morning and perhaps afternoon sessions to follow that up. I could do a whole session just on prospecting and the time to do it. But what I find is that you need to track exactly what you’re doing in order to make sure that you’re using your time most effectively and working out when you get the best results.

That time needs to be in your Outlook Calendar. It needs to be in an ideal week in front of your computer screen, and then you need to remove the distractions. Heidi had some great tools for how to remove the distractions. If you haven’t yet removed the notifications from your phone, removed the pop-up email, do it. I’m not just talking about the technology. 

What’s the biggest distraction in your office right now from getting your business? The people around you. One of my biggest distractions just left the room. Maybe she’s watching outside. The people who have the best intentions in your business are still ultimately a distractor. So you need to work out what is your visual cue to let people know that you are not to be interrupted and that you are focusing on your business.

Put your headphones in. Change your location. Move to a meeting room. Put a hard hat on if you have to. I have a BDM that has a hat on his desk that he puts on occasionally when it’s getting a bit rowdy in the office to say, “Back off. Work in progress. We’ve got stuff going on.” Whatever you need, have a visual cue and communicate it to your team. 

“Team, I need you to hold me accountable from 9-11, four days a week, I will be prospecting. You will not be able to interrupt me during that time. And I’d like you to hold me accountable to be on them at that time.Is that okay?” I know that we have this tendency to think that the world ends in our absence. So far, it hasn’t. 

I have not yet come across anybody who’s been successful at growing their business that has had a catastrophic disaster take place that needed their attention during prospecting time. Because you know what? If it is a catastrophic disaster, you probably can’t solve it yet anyway. Make that appointment with the phone and have the discipline.