How to schedule your month for success

Do you wish you had more time each month to hit your targets? Most Sales Development Reps (SDRs) would agree that time is one of their biggest challenges. According to Ralph Barsi, two of the five barriers that block reps from hitting sales quotas are lack of focus and inactivity. It’s not surprising with the often overwhelming array of tasks you need to complete each day. It’s easy to get behind before you realize it, then it’s difficult to catch up.

Avoid these issues by having a clear plan in place for each day throughout the month. This will help you make the most of your time and stay on track to easily hit your targets month after month.

You may be thinking, “That’s impossible, every day is different. How am I supposed to plan out my entire month?” It may sound complex, but in reality, it is less difficult than it sounds.

Do the math

To ensure you reach your goals, focus on the activities you can control. Since the number of conversations and meetings scheduled will fluctuate from day to day, the number of dials is your best target. To calculate this you, use reporting to determine how many dials it takes to generate a conversation and how many conversations to generate a demo. Once you have this information you’ll know how many dials you need to reach your goal per day, week, and month.

For example, if you know you book one demo from every 10 conversations, and connect with someone every five dials, then you need to make 50 calls to get one demo per day. By that same math, you should be able to book at least 21 demos per month.

Now, take your goals and break them down to monthly, weekly, and daily targets. Once you’ve done that you can translate them to activity goals. Then you’ll want to block off and prioritize the time on your schedule to ensure you have sufficient time to complete these activities.

Create your perfect day

Before you can schedule your month, you need to create a daily schedule for maximum efficiency. There are many factors to consider as you do this such as:

• Your goals and objectives
• Sales cadence best practices
• The time zones of your contacts
• Your peak energy times
• Your personality
• Key activities needed to hit your goals

Then you need to block off times for each activity. Be sure to allow sufficient time each day to make up for periodic meetings and activities. Streamline your schedule by batching like tasks and automating anything possible. Don’t forget to schedule time for any necessary research daily as well as time at the end of each day to recap and to get organized for the next one.

Map out your month

When planning for the upcoming month, plug in your perfect daily schedule. Then, identify all the activities and events for the month that aren’t a daily occurrence such as one-off events like your annual sales kickoff meeting or a special training event. There are also recurring activities like team meetings, one-on-ones and more. List all of these things and block off the time in your monthly calendar.

Since every day is different, once you have added all these events to your calendar, you may need to move around some of your activity time blocks. Use the extra time you allotted in your daily schedule to accommodate these events by moving some activity blocks to other days. This prevents unscheduled activities from throwing you off track from hitting your goals and helps you stay more focused throughout the month.