Sales isn't a mystical art. You don't have to climb a rugged, wind-beaten mountain, meet with a sacred monk, and learn ancient words of wisdom to close deals. You just need to commit to daily sales activities.
In this article, I'll share seven sales activities you should do every day. Once you do, your sales numbers will rise, as will your commission checks and career success.
Sounds pretty great, right? Then, let's stop wasting time and dive right into the good stuff!
What are Daily Sales Activities?
The exact daily sales activities you complete will depend on the products/services you sell and the target audience you sell them to. But in general, I'm talking about things like:
- Making sales calls
- Sending sales emails
- Building sales funnels
- Managing sales pipelines
- Updating customer profiles
- Creating detailed sales reports
- Attending important sales meetings
These are the things you must do every day if you want to be a successful sales rep. And while some of them might not be your idea of a good time, they're all beneficial.
Why Should You Have Daily Sales Activities?
Sales is all about consistency. If you complete specific activities every day—and complete them well—you'll see results. What kind of results?
Increased Productivity
When you set a clear daily schedule full of must-do sales activities, your productivity levels will skyrocket. This is because you'll never wonder, "What should I do next?" You'll know exactly what needs to get done each day and be able to do it promptly.
There are a lot of ways to boost sales productivity. You can prioritize qualified leads who are most likely to respond to your sales pitches, for example. Or invest in sales automation tools that minimize data entry work and speed up your outreach efforts.
Few productivity hacks are as simple as "set a schedule," though. So, while I definitely think you should invest in sales automation (check out Close!) don't sidestep your daily to-dos.
Ready to optimize your sales workflow? Learn about the must-have sales productivity tools in our informative article.
Hit That Quota
Every sales rep wants to hit quota. Guess what—daily sales activities will help you do it.
How? You can fill your calendar with tasks that you know lead to sales. I'm talking about prospecting for new leads, making cold calls, following up with prospects via email, etc.
You can also eliminate tasks that don't produce results, like randomly scrolling through social media feeds because you're not really sure how else to spend your time.
Improved Sales Rep Satisfaction
Are you a sales manager? Then, your department's turnover rate is always on your mind. Why wouldn't it be? Departing team members always leads to lost productivity and elevated costs.
Fortunately, daily sales activities can increase sales rep satisfaction.
The average person just wants to understand the intricacies of their job and contribute to meaningful goals. When these things happen, they feel empowered and valued.
When you tell your reps which sales activities to complete daily, you help give them purpose, which almost always translates into better retention metrics for sales teams (and better results for your top performers).
Better Sales Reporting
Finally, daily sales activities will help you craft better reports and, more importantly, draw insights from said reports that can be used to optimize your approach to sales.
This is especially true if you use a CRM solution like Close. You'll be able to track every activity your reps complete and the results of each—all from one intuitive dashboard.
You can then evaluate your team's performance. Which activities produce subpar results? Give them the boot. Which activities lead to sales, revenue, and higher conversion rates? Double down on them like Mark Zuckerberg did on the Metaverse in 2021. (Make sure your double-downs pan out better than they did for Zuck. RIP, Metaverse. RIP.)
7 Key Sales Activities You Can Do Every Day (Right in Your CRM!)
Daily sales activities will help you achieve more as a professional seller. The question is, which sales activities should you complete every day?
1. Go Through Your Inbox
You use email to close deals, right? Then, you need to go through your inbox on a day-to-day basis. That way, you can respond to people who have contacted you about a sale.
When you go through your inbox, it is completely up to you. I like to do it first thing in the morning. This allows me to promptly handle my warmest leads, i.e., the people who have contacted me for information about the products and services I sell.
You might be different, though. Maybe you like to start your day on LinkedIn, reading and commenting on your prospects' posts to build goodwill. Your call. As long as you sit down and clean up your inbox at some point in your work day, you should be good to go.
I should mention that Close makes it super easy to assess one's inbox and respond to important messages. You can see at a glance what tasks you need to complete in a given day, who's emailed and texted you back, and who's left you a voice message.
Most importantly, you can see which account each email, text, and call response is linked to and prioritize your follow-up routines based on this information.
2. Check Your Pipeline
Next, keep an eye on your sales pipeline.
How many opportunities are you (or your team, if you're in a management position) working right now? Which stage of the sales process is each opportunity in? And is everything up to date? Maybe you need to add a note to a specific account's profile or make a stage change.
Most importantly, which opportunities are closest to a sale, and what can you do today to nudge them across the finish line? These things should become your highest priority tasks.
Pipeline checks will also help you identify bottlenecks, which you can then work to fix. Maybe you just need to reach out to specific leads. Maybe you need to access an external resource or two in order to answer a technical question. Or maybe it's something else entirely.
Whatever the case, pipeline checks will help you pinpoint and eliminate bottlenecks that keep you from closing deals and driving revenue. Don't skip this sales activity.
3. Block Time for Sales Calls
Now that your inbox and sales pipeline are ready to rock, you can get on with the rest of your day. For most salespeople, that means picking up the phone and cold-calling as many numbers as possible. You know, that is the thing that most sales reps hate doing.
According to Gitnux, 63 percent of sales professionals say cold calling is what they dislike most. But maybe that's because they don't know how to do it correctly.
- First, get into the right frame of mind. One of the best ways to do this is to make cold calls at the time of day you feel most creative. (Unless your creativity spikes at 2 am. If that's the case, forget this tip. Ain't nobody want to hear from you then.) Doing so will help you maintain high energy levels and connect with more prospects.
- Second, develop a plan of attack before you call. If you "wing" your cold calls, you'll crash and burn. Instead, create a script, talk track, or template to follow. Then, learn the material so well that you can speak it and sound like a normal human being. The goal is to have real conversations with your prospects that follow a proven structure. If you can pull that off, you'll find way more success with cold calling—I guarantee it.
- Remember why you're calling in the first place. You should not try to make sales during cold calls. You should gauge each prospect's interest in your products or services and build relationships. This is so important! Very few people will buy from a stranger. But if you can parlay your cold call into a new relationship, you might be able to make a sale in the future. Always keep this in the front of your mind.
Here's one more tip: take advantage of the call-related features in your chosen CRM.
Close, for example, will allow you to add call tasks to your workflows, so you never forget to follow up with leads. Close also includes Power and Predictive dialers, which will help you boost your productivity levels and make way more phone calls than before.
4. Follow up with Prospects Who Have Gone Cold
Your list of daily sales activities must include follow-up.
You've heard the stats before--60 percent of buyers say "no" four times before they say "yes." Unfortunately, 92 percent of salespeople give up after the fourth rejection.
Missed it by that much…
The trick to a proper follow-up message, especially regarding email, is brevity. If you write your prospects a novel about the sales conversations you've had with them in the past and three different ways you can progress a potential deal, you'll get crickets.
Seriously, no prospect wants to read that kind of email. All that message will do is irritate potential customers and make them less likely to buy from you. No bueno.
Do this instead: ask your cold prospects one question that's super easy to respond to. Something like, "Hey, Mr. Prospect, did you get a chance to watch the product demo I sent?" This kind of email is much more likely to generate a response than a long, drawn-out one.
Now, if your prospect is arctic-level cold, you may need to put in more effort to jumpstart the sales cycle. This is where a short, 60-second video message can come in handy.
Just make sure your video message is personalized to catch your prospect's attention. And remember to portray yourself in the best light possible. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to mention the value your products and services bring.
5. Reach out to Existing Customers
Most sales reps spend the majority of their time chasing new customers.
However, existing customers spend an average of 67 percent more than new ones, which means they might be the missing link in your never-ending quest to hit quota.
So, when adding daily sales activities to your schedule, don't forget to check in with past buyers. Doing so will help keep customer relationships fresh and pinpoint upsell opportunities.
(Note: depending on the size of your customer base, you may not want to contact existing customers every day. Instead, block out time once a week or so for this activity.)
The key to successful follow-up with existing customers is authenticity. You should genuinely care about these people and their success with your offerings. Or, at the very least, you should be able to convince your target audience that you care.
Just be prepared for negative answers. You'll catch a grumpy buyer now and again who hates the thing you sold them. Treat these situations as opportunities. If you can help these people finally get value from your company's products/services, they'll love you forever.
What about the buyers who already worship the ground you walk on? There's opportunity there, too. Ask these folks for testimonials and referrals you can use to generate more sales. And, whenever possible, suggest adjacent products/services they can also buy.
6. Analyze Sales Data and Your Sales Goals Achievement
Data makes the sales world go round, right? So, it makes sense for you to regularly analyze the specific KPIs that matter to you and your sales department.
CRM software like Close makes this incredibly easy to do in real-time.
Navigate to the "Reporting" tab inside Close, select the metrics you want to evaluate and generate an easy-to-read report. Said metrics can include the total number of calls you make every day. Or the number of deals you close. Or even the amount of revenue you've personally generated for your company. (This last one can be a big morale booster!)
Now, looking at your sales data is fine and dandy. Comparing your sales data to the specific goals you want to achieve is infinitely more valuable. Doing so will help you understand how your individual efforts relate to the success of your sales organization and how to improve.
Plus, analytics reports will help you prepare for team meetings. You'll have all the information you need to answer your sales manager's barrage of questions.
7. Set Aside Prep Time for Your Sales Meetings
Your sales manager isn't the only person you meet with regularly.
Unless you're the worst salesperson of all time, you'll scare up at least a few meetings with potential buyers. So, add "Prep for Meeting" to your list of daily sales activities.
Start by contacting the potential buyer(s) you're supposed to meet with that day and ask them if they're still available. The last thing you want to do is hang out on Zoom for 30 minutes—alone—because your prospect bailed and didn't tell you.
You can do this in Close using the "Smart View" feature, which will help you quickly send a bulk message to all of the prospects you're supposed to meet with that day.
Next, refresh your brain on each prospect. Who are they? What do they struggle with? How can your products and/or services help them overcome these challenges? The more you know about each prospect and their situation, the more successful your meetings will be.
The Benefits of Time Blocking
Can I stress one more thing before I let you go? Time blocking is awesome.
You should schedule specific sales activities for specific times on your daily calendar. Then you should do only that activity during the time you've allotted for it. This will help you declutter your mind and focus on the task at hand, leading to higher productivity levels.
Finally, schedule each sales activity for the ideal time. Are you most creative in the morning? Start your day with cold calls. Does it take you a while and a few cups of coffee to get going? Start your day with some pipeline research, then tackle the phones in the afternoon.
Supercharge Your Team with Consistent Daily Sales Activities
Once you commit to daily sales activities, you'll become more productive, hit quota more often, and produce reports that you can use to elevate your sales performance.
If you're a sales leader, daily sales activities will help you boost your department's rep satisfaction and retention metrics, too, which is never a bad thing.
Fortunately, the most important sales activities aren't shrouded in mystery. As long as you check your pipeline, make cold calls, follow up with cold leads, analyze sales data, and do all the other things I discussed in this article, your sales strategy will truly excel.
Of course, it's much easier to complete daily sales activities with the right tools. You should start using Close, the ultimate CRM tool for startups and small businesses.
Tap into our platform to streamline every aspect of your sales career, from lead generation to sales reporting. Think I talk too much game? Sign up for a free 14-day trial of our solution today and experience the power of Close for yourself—we won't even ask for your credit card!
