Wrong psalm, right lesson: What church taught me about sales prep

Having a great sales day, week and month means becoming super extraordinary at time management. Start your sales week prepared and ready to execute and complete.”

Jeff Sleete, a 50+ year broadcast industry veteran

I have been serving as a cantor for church Masses for over 40 years, and on a recent Sunday, I had a first. In the Catholic Church, there are three rites celebrated at a specific Mass on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays during the Lenten season for adults preparing for baptism at Easter. So, the Scripture settings and music are different at those Masses than others that weekend. During a particularly hectic week, I pulled my music together for one of those special Masses.

The area where I do most of my singing is in a choir loft located in the back of the church. When it is time to sing the psalm, I take an elevator down one floor to sing it in the sanctuary after the first Scripture reading of the day. Typically, on the ride down, I open my music folder and use my index finger to mark the psalm page to be ready when the time comes. That's when panic hit me — as the date at the top of the music caught my eye, I realized I had grabbed and practiced the wrong week’s psalm.

I immediately reversed the elevator’s direction and approached our choir director and organist, telling her my problem. She quickly said, “Grab a mic and sing it, looking over my shoulder at my music.” This all happened in about a minute. They say, “If you stumble, make it part of the dance.” Luckily, I can sightread music pretty well, so a catastrophe was averted.

Here, I thought I came prepared to sing and clearly dropped a major ball.

In sales, preparation is central to success.

How do you prepare to set yourself up to have a fantastic week? This is an extremely important discipline.

• If you want a good sales day, you need eight to 10 rock-solid hours.
• If you want a good sales week, you need five rock-solid days.
• If you want a good sales month, you need four rock-solid weeks.

Whether a day, a week or a month, having a good one requires serious preparation. The requirements are things like …

• To-do lists: Lists you take with you every sales day, everywhere you go, and constantly update.
• Priorities: Zero in on what is most critical to accomplish for the upcoming week and prioritize those things.
• Timing: You need to set times for what must be done — not during the times you should see clients. Those hours need to be dedicated to prospecting, client meetings and follow-ups and presenting ideas (not creating pitches).

Everything on your to-do list outside those key sales elements still needs attention. Stuff like doing client research, practicing presentations, reports that need to be filed, CRM sales call updates, planning client target lists, sending letters and emails and checking emails. You must set time aside before and after your key client relationship hours to finish those things.

Yes, things will happen to catch you off guard. (Like me grabbing the wrong week’s music!) That’s ok. That’s just part of the gig. But there are other things that you can attend to that become time-gobblers, like social media, reading the news, BSing with your peers, friends or family, etc. You must avoid these interruptions and remain focused on your most important sales pursuits. 

Having a great sales day, week and month means becoming super extraordinary at time management. Start your sales week prepared and ready to execute and complete. Commit to a weekly preparedness session. It should take you 15-20 minutes tops. Make it the last thing you do before you take off for the weekend. And review your plans every day. That should only take you a few minutes per day.

Top sales pros abhor being out of control. When you fail to plan your week, you are out of control.

“An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing” — Dale Carnegie

Jeff Sleete is a 50+ year broadcast industry veteran — sales manager/GM/corporate sales head. He most enjoys helping sales departments position themselves as “mavens” (experts) of business to be more successful at selling advertising. Fundamentally, Jeff is a salesman. Through his media sales consultancy, Sleete Sales Script, he provides a daily road map for sellers of any media outlet type to be more consultative in their approach to their clients and set themselves apart from all their competition. Learn more about Jeff at https://www.sleetesales.com/. Or reach him at  jeff@sleetesales.com.