How to manage your time more effectively - 5 Time management tips for SDRs
Today, I'll show you how to manage your time to stay consistent to get results.
Unfortunately, most SDRs don't have a system for managing their days, or where they need to spend their time. Because of that, they don't get results.
When I start learning about what makes the difference between being a top performer and the rest of the team, one of the first things to focus on is: time management.
Time management it's hard to learn because you need to improve your self-discipline.
How to manage your time more effectively
Tip #1: 4 types of SDR activities
Revenue Generating Activities (RGAs)
Non-RGAs
The rest
Self-development
RGA: the time you spend engaging with prospects. It's where you will get results and your commissions.
Examples:
Writing and sending emails,
Cold calling,
Talking to a prospect on the phone
Talking to prospects on LinkedIn
Make a video and it to your prospects
Etc.
Non RGA: activities that take time to support your RGA.
Examples:
Prep your cold call list: no bigger impact to the day then having the list of people you’re calling and why already written out
Adding accounts to your cadences
Preparing your accounts list
Researching an account: are they hiring? Last funding round, etc.
Researching a prospect: what do they care about? Headline section on LI, etc
Prep for your next day: time block your RGA on your calendar, get your call list ready, research your accounts, etc.
Etc.
The rest: nothing related to RGA and Non RGA
Examples:
1:1 with your manager
Coaching session with your manager
Internal meetings & projects
Etc.
Self-development:
Examples:
Review your day: what went well? Where could you improve? What can I quickly eliminate?
Review your cold calls: 1 good one and 1 bad one. What can you learn from each? Ask for feedback from your manager or a peer.
Study your prospects: research your prospects' problems, always be learning more about your industry, not about your product.
Invest in yourself: read a book on sales, read an article, and listen to a podcast episode, every single day.
Etc.
Here’s how you might organize your day:
RGAs: 5h
Non-RGA: 2h
The rest: 1h
Self-development: 30 min
Tip #2: Rank your activities
Now that we talk about how you can structure your day.
Rank your:
Activities: cold emails, cold calls. When are you the best on the phone? Morning or afternoon?
Accounts: it’s important to spend more time on RGAs for larger accounts than it is for smaller accounts because not all RGAs are created equal.
Prospects: a person involved in a previous closed lost opp? A person follows your company on LinkedIn? Cold prospect?
Cadences: previous closed lost opportunities? Follow-up cadence?
You need to focus on those activities, accounts, etc where you know that you have the most chance to get a reply.
Tip #3: Work in bursts
Call for 50 min. Take a break. Send emails for 50 min. Take a break.
1 task at a time throughout the day. No multitasking.
Tip #4: Turn off notifications during your RGA.
Turn off Slack, your phone notifications, etc.
You can use your breaks to check Slack, reply to your manager, check your phone, help other SDRs or reply to people who sent you a message.
Your RGA are the most important during your working days.
I've seen a lot of people saying you need to be reactive if someone needs help on Slack, I disagree with this.
Tip #5 Have a system for each block
We talked about 5h of RGA on tip #1.
If you want to go deeper on this, you might set a goal for your process.
In my 50 min call block I will make 30 dials.
In my 50 min email block I will write 10 personalized emails.
Focus on the process, not on the results.
Thanks for reading.
That's all for this Sunday. 5 simple tips for SDRs.
Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.
See you again next Sunday.
Cheers,
Elric
❤️
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