One of the biggest frustrations in sales is handling all the requests and tasks you have, which compete for your time and attention:

You need to do what your prospects/customers require so you can move the deal forward.
You need to do what your manager has asked of you (all those CRM updates, KPI measures you need to hit, etc.)
You need to do the things to progress your career or continue your personal development.

When making decisions on how to prioritize my time, I have found that if I can take care of ONE item for each of these major buckets, each day, I can feel good about my productivity and ensuring I'm focused. Here's how I prioritize for each bucket:

You need to do what your prospects/customers require so you can move the deal forward.
- Focus on the "closest to the close" activity - what is the next best action that will move the deal along to a closed-won status?
You need to do what your manager has asked of you (all those CRM updates, KPI measures you need to hit, etc.)
- Focus on the action that will have the largest impact if you DON'T do it - for many, this is updating forecasts and pipeline details. Hunters may find it is getting through the call activity metric leadership requires to build pipeline. Find yours and tackle it first thing.
You need to do the things to progress your career or continue your personal development.
- Focus on a skill/training that can impact your current role as well as "future you". This may look like reading a book on time management, or working with a mentor/buddy on developing better discovery questions, handling negotiations, etc. You'll be working towards personal growth with a skill that can impact your current role and set you up for success in your next job too.

Jessica Holmes

AMA: Adobe Director, Adobe Sales Academy, Jessica Holmeson Developing Your Sales Career

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AMA: Adobe Director, Adobe Sales Academy, Jessica Holmes
on Developing Your Sales Career