How to Prioritize High-Value Activities with Amy Franko, Ep #184

If you learn to define and prioritize high-value activities you will become a more productive sales professional. If you know what activities hold the highest value and act on those over lower-value activities you set yourself up for success. We have finite reserves—you get to choose where you invest your time, energy, motivation and discipline.

Amy Franko joins Paul in this episode of Sales Reinvented to chat about how she prioritizes her time to be successful in sales. Amy specializes in working with B2B organizations on sales effectiveness. She is a trainer and consultant, keynote speaker, and author of The Modern Seller. 

Outline of This Episode

• [0:46] What is productivity?
• [1:50] What makes us unproductive
• [2:51] Improving productivity
• [4:13] Attributes of a great salesperson
• [5:07] Productivity Tools and tips
• [6:30] Top 3 dos and top 3 don'ts
• [11:34] Amy’s favorite productivity story

Learn to say ‘no’ to prioritize high-value activities

Amy points out that salespeople often have a huge list of sales activities to tackle. They’re often given the added burden of administrative tasks that they don’t need on their plates. This automatically lowers your ability to focus on high-value tasks. You must define what activity only you can do so you can delegate—or drop altogether—what isn’t a priority. Where are you going to devote your resources? What can you say no to?

How do you become a more productive salesperson?

A good sales professional knows the difference between just staying busy versus being productive. They are decisive about where they spend their time. Amy says you need to learn to focus on the big picture. Look at your week and set 3 goals—the high-value activities that will bring you forward progress.

Likewise, she does the same thing daily: she prioritizes 3 things to get accomplished. If you start with a list of 10+ activities, you will never get anything done. But if you narrow your focus and knock out the most important things, it can leave room to knock out whatever’s left. 

They time-block what’s important to stay organized. She recommends using a timer for each activity. It frees up your mind to focus on the task-at-hand instead of watching the clock. When the alarm goes off, you can re-evaluate where you’re at and either devote more time or move on to the next task. 

Amy also loves using agendas to stay on track with meetings. Lastly, she likes to keep it old-school and use a paper list to track what she’s focusing on in a particular day. 

Amy’s top 3 Productivity Do’s and Don’ts

What are some things you should—or shouldn’t—do to enhance productivity?

• You must decide that your time is something you want to invest—not spend. 
• Design an environment that supports your productivity. Amy invested in a co-working space for when she needs to focus and knock out projects. Her home office brought too many distractions, so she came up with a better plan!
• Block your professional time AND your personal time in a way that works for you. 
• Don’t say yes to every opportunity, but take time to decide if it’s right for you.
• Don’t procrastinate on follow-up—do as many of those tasks while they’re fresh in your mind. 
• Don’t forget to bring an agenda to your meetings with clients. You’ll be far more productive.

These are just a few of the things that Amy has found are imperative to her success that is easy for anyone to implement. 

What Amy learned launching her book: The Modern Seller

Writing a book is a huge undertaking. You aren’t just writing—you’re creating content, dealing with publishing, as well as marketing. Complex projects have a lot of moving parts, and Amy learned some valuable things that she wanted to share:

1. To do something meaningful, she had to make trade-offs on other activities. She had to invest her time wisely to accomplish her dream of publishing a book. 
2. She invested in an accountability partner. Amy hired a book coach and did a weekly call with her. Knowing she had to give her an update kept her on task and moving forward. 
3. Big things are never accomplished alone. You need a support team so that you can focus on what your strengths are and the high-value activities that produce revenue. 

Amy is full of useful tips and tricks that she’s learned throughout the years. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn from one of the best and listen to the whole episode of Sales Reinvented!

Resources & People Mentioned

• Leff Bonney
• Todoist
• The Modern Seller by Amy Franko

Connect with Amy Franko

• Amy’s website
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED

Audio Production and Show notes by
PODCAST FAST TRACK
https://www.podcastfasttrack.com