What did you do today? part 6 What happens when I get near the end of the day and I don’t have my points? No problem, I start looking thru my open estimates for prospects/customers I need to follow up with. If I’m really desperate for some points, I’ll open up our industry specific software and check my history database. I look specifically to  see who I was serving last year at this time. Is there anybody on that list that I haven’t heard from in awhile? If there is (and there always is), those lucky customers get a phone call, email, text or a visit. The best part of the daily worksheet...

What did you do today? part 5 It’s important to track ALL your memorable activities throughout the day. Don’t wait til the end of the day! Also, I keep up with my average points per day. When I first started measuring my points in a day back in 2009, I averaged 16 points a day. My goal for 2010 was to increase that number by 50%; so, my new goal was 25 points a day. I also purposed in my heart to do that 25 point minimum EVERY DAY. I wasn’t looking for an average, I was setting the minimal acceptable point total for that day. That year, I hit 25 points or more EVERY DAY I worked. You may remember...

What are you doing today? part 4 If you’re like me, you accomplish your goals and immediately move on to the next task on the list. Years ago, I began learning the lesson of celebrating the “small” victories we enjoy along the way. We call these our “star points.” I’m not good at this. I tend to make a sale and immediately start focusing on the next sale. We need to slow down and savor the beauty of a newly landed prospect that turns into a customer. Stopping just a moment to savor the “win” provides fuel for the long haul. One way we celebrate is by recording and...

What are you doing today? Part 3 We also track appointments. Appointments are scheduled visits (either at the shop or on location). As long as they are scheduled, we count them. Scheduling appointments rewards the act of taking time to set the appointment. I don’t place as much value on a cold call or a drop in because they denigrate the value of the salesman. If my salesman doesn’t take the time to schedule an appointment, he’s basically saying that his time is not valuable. He also may be communicating to the customer/prospect that there time is not valuable either. A regular Appointment is 3...

What are you doing today? Part 2 We track Prospects and Customers. If you spend all your time on prospects, you will starve today. If you spend all your time on your current customers, you will starve tomorrow. We list all UNIQUE contacts (prospects + customers) for each day. If I talk to a prospect three times in one day, they only get listed once (one point). If I talk to a customer once about an upcoming job; later on I talk to them about a job in house; and then near the end of the day, I follow up and ask them about a job we delivered last week, it still only counts as one point. The point is not...

I could have named this blog, what did you do yesterday? Or for that matter, what did you do on Thursday, March 10 of last year (2011)? Do you know? I surely don’t…wait a minute, I DO know pretty much everything I did on yesterday and last March 10. How do I do it? I keep a daily diary. I know how many prospects I talked to…who they are and the nature of the conversation. I know how many customers I talked to; most of my conversations were about specific jobs we have in house for them, but I also talked to them about potential jobs or just to check up on them to see how they are...