February is when reality sets in. Q1 is already moving fast, and if your sales pipeline isn’t where you expected it to be, it’s usually for one simple reason: new business development keeps getting pushed aside for “more urgent” work. The problem? What feels urgent today is often the very thing that creates an empty pipeline tomorrow. If you don’t intentionally protect time for business development you pay for it later, usually when it’s too late to fix Q1.
Here are 10 Tips To Prioritize Business Development NOW!
1. Schedule a time on your calendar and consider it as firm as a meeting with a new prospect, you would never cancel one of those! Our data shows that Tues 12-2 and Wed 2-4 are the best times for reaching executive level prospects live on the phone.
2. Use your lunch hour (or a portion of it) one or two days per week.
3. End work an hour early two days a week and schedule business development for that time period.
4. When you begin your calls and emails, put your phone on do not disturb, sign off e-mail, turn off your cell phone and hang a sign on your office door letting others know that you are working on business development, so do not disturb for a specified period of time (just as you would if you were in a meeting).
5. Before canceling your business development time for an emergency, think twice about whether it truly needs to be handled by you right now, or if it can wait for 60 minutes (or 30 minutes or 10 minutes, as it would wait if you were in a meeting).
6. If the emergency needs to be handled and your business development time must stop, schedule an alternate time on your calendar and consider it as firm as a meeting. Try twice a week for 60 minutes. If 60 minutes is not manageable, try for 30. If this isn’t workable, try 10. If you don’t have 10 minutes twice a week, shoot for 5. If you can’t find 5 minutes twice a week, see number 10 below.
7. Reduce the size of your prospect list. Pick 10 of your most promising contacts and reach them. Once you get through them, add 10 more.
8. If this doesn’t work, further reduce the size of your list. Pick the five most promising prospects and reach them. Once you get through them, add five more.
9. If you still can’t get this done, pick two of your most promising prospects and reach them. Once you get through them, add two more!
10. If you are unable to incorporate any of these tips into your work schedule, you might want to rethink your desire to earn more money! Fill your pipeline now!