The Ultimate Guide to Starting Q2, and exceed quota.

(5 Steps + Spreadsheet Calculator)

Apr 02, 2023

Read time: 3 min

Already end of Q1, how was Q1 for you? Hope you had a great Q1!

For me it was okay, could have been better.

Tomorrow is the first day of Q2. So let’s talk about how you can plan your quarter, and exceed quota.

I use this every quarter and I’m going to show you how you can apply it to your own life to perform to your full potential and hit your quota in Q2.

The problem with how we usually set goals.

Leadership: “your expectations for Q2 are: 60 qualified demos”.

It’s really hard.

Because we don’t have a plan, and we just start Q2 without a plan. I know I’ve committed this error many times myself.

The problem is this: we set a deadline, but not a plan.

It's much easier when you break it down, have a plan, and a daily game plan.

TLDR

The Ultimate Guide to Starting Q2

Step 1: Review

Step 2: Plan

Step 3: Schedule

Step 4: Monetize

Step 5: Test new things

The Ultimate Guide to Starting Q2

Step 1: Review Q1

Review your performance in Q1:

Your conversion rates (quality) and your activities (quantity).

Go on your CRM or Sales Engagement Platform.

Make a list of all the meetings you booked by prospecting channels
How many emails did you send? How many qualified demos did you book?
How many calls did you make? How many qualified demos did you book?
How many LinkedIn messages did you send? How many qualified demos did you book?
How many videos did you send? How many qualified demos, did you book?
How many people did you add to your cadences?
How many accounts did you prospect in total?
What’s the quality of those accounts?
What work? What didn’t?
Etc

If you are just starting as a new SDR, and don’t have those numbers. Here’s what you can do:

You take the average of the team
If you don't have a team, focus on activities then review your previous week and iterate at the beginning of each week.

After reviewing your metrics, think about:

do you want to do more activities?
Do you want to improve your prospecting skills to improve your conversion rate?

Step 2: Plan Q2

Now time to plan Q2 based on your review.

How many business days in Q2 2023? Let’s see in the USA, do the same for the country, or the region you working on.

April: 20 days
May: 22 days - with 1 public holiday
June: 21 days - with 1 public holiday

Total: 63 business days

To get 60 qualified demos with an 80% show rate.

You need: 75 meetings booked.

Daily: 1.2 meeting booked, so 1 or 2 per day

October: 24
November: 26
December: 25

After reviewing your metrics in Q3, you booked:

20% of your meetings via LinkedIn with a 2% conversion rate
45% of your meetings via cold calls with a 1% conversion rate
35% of your meetings via cold emails with a 0.32% conversion rate

In Q2, you need to make:

3 375 cold calls to book 34 demos
8 203emails sent to book 26 demos
750 LinkedIn messages to book 15 demos

Your daily and weekly game plan:

Step 3: Schedule

Time to schedule your gameplan

Now, you are going to time block your days to make sure you are doing your activities every day to hit your quota in Q2.

Daily gameplan

Calls: 2 blocks x 1h - 27 calls
Emails: 3 blocks x 1h - 44 emails
LinkedIn: 1 block x 1h - 12 messages

6h of Revenue Generating Activities that you need to do every day to hit your quota in Q2.

Step 4: Monetize your Revenue Generating Activities

To motivate yourself and think about your commissions differently. And how much revenue you bring to your company, let’s think about:

How much $ do you earn for each activity?
How much $ does your company earn for each one of your activity?

Let’s say our commissions for Q2 are $7.5k USD and our goal for sourced ARR is $100k USD.

Here’s what your earn and what your company earns:

Now you can motivate yourself by seeing how much money you earn for each one of your activities, and how much revenue you bring to your company.

You can also think about, the opposite, if you don’t do your activities you are not going to earn the money, you’re supposed to get.

Step 5: Test new things and improve your prospecting skills

One thing that I hear a lot from SDRs, they get bored with doing this role.

You get bored if you stop learning.

By testing new things, you will learn different ways to prospect.

2023, it’s the year when you want to try and improve your prospecting skills.

And you?

What are you going to test this quarter?

For me, cold calls.

That’s the outbound channel where I need to improve (a lot).

One of my challenges, for Q2 is to book 5 meetings per month.

I’ve been procrastinating a lot on this channel.

Now, it’s my time to improve.

If you don’t know how to do all of this, I created a spreadsheet you can use to break it down and hit your quota in Q2.

You can find it here, and make a copy.

Use and copy the spreadsheet

I made a video 3 months ago, to show you how you can use the spreadsheet:

To recap, to hit quota in Q2, try this:

Step 1: Review

Step 2: Plan

Step 3: Schedule

Step 4: Monetize

Step 5: Test new things

It’s not easy.

But it's easier than seeing 60 qualified demos with no plan.

Next steps?

Review your Q1 performance.

Copy the spreadsheet.

Use the spreadsheet, make your own: plan, schedule, and monetize Q2.

Make a list of things you want to try in Q2

That's all for this Sunday. Let’s crush Q2!

Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.

See you next week.

Happy prospecting ✌️

Elric

PS: Here're the 3 last issues if you miss them:

If you want to read the previous ones, here's the link.