4 Secrets to Help SaaS Sellers Maximize Success (Part 1)

Why Planning in the Morning is Costing You Precious Time

As SaaS sellers, we all have a million things to do that collide with competing priorities, especially as we are under immense pressure to deliver results. It can be stressful when you have a to-do list that never ends. And, in a high-paced role, it’s often hard to turn off when you close the laptop for the evening. Tasks and situations run through your mind when you’re supposed to be relaxing and spending time with loved ones.

While this scenario is common for SaaS Sellers, and frankly all knowledge workers, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s a look at a strategy I developed to help you take more control of your schedule, success, and quality of life and it starts with planning ahead.

Stay one step ahead

A key I’ve found to gaining control of my days is to take time each evening to plan for the next day. It’s part of a personal operating framework and system I use to effectively integrate work and life called PREP:

P — Plan

R — Rest

E — Effort

P — Perform

In this article, learn:

• Why planning is critical for SaaS sales professionals and knowledge workers
• How to plan effectively
• The benefits of this planning approach

Why planning is critical for Saas Sellers

“Your day starts the night before.”

–Ryan Serhant

Planning at the end of each workday draws a line in the sand and puts you in control.

It creates the space for you to assess what you’ve completed during the day, take notes about everything that is still on your mind, and plan for the following day.

By taking this simple step, you can stop the cycle of reacting, replacing it with a proactive approach. It’s also important so you can effectively walk away from work and be present in the other parts of your life.

If you don’t take action to wrap up the day and plan for the next, it still needs to get done. Your mind will try to do this process but on its terms. For example, you may notice your mind running through the day’s event as your significant other is telling you about their day. Or you may be remembering an email you forgot to send when your son or daughter wants you to play a game with them.

The spillover of work into your downtime is a big problem. It can damage personal relationships and doesn’t enable your mind to relax and recover which is an important part of being productive the following day (more on that next week).

How to plan effectively

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

–David Allen.

How do you go about effectively planning?

At the end of each workday, I recommend you dedicate about 25–30 minutes to planning the next day. Review what you did during the day and mark off the tasks you’ve completed. Then, add any new tasks that you need to get done and make notes for the things you need to remember.

No matter what app or resource you use, the goal is to get all the tasks and thoughts out of your head and into a trusted personal system so you don’t have to worry about remembering them. I personally use the Todoist and Sunsama apps. You can organize tasks by category, priority, due date, and can even assign them to other people. Then, everything syncs up with your Google Calendar and Gmail.

I do a brain dump into Todoist to get clear. I then tag my tasks by 1.) priority, 2.) project (i.e. each of my accounts are set up as a project) and 3.) energy level. As far as prioritizing my tasks by energy level and my natural circadian rhythm, I use the Rise app to understand what my energy levels are for the day and then match up my tasks with it (a simple alignment of high priority tasks with highest energy levels). Note, this takes time of consistent tracking and monitoring to get right, but once you do get it right, it will feel so much more natural and you’ll achieve consistently high levels of flow state.

I’ll use Sunsama to pull in my tasks from Todoist and meetings from Google calendar and create a minute-by-minute map for my day. Where there are gaps on my calendar, I will insert blocks like “Deep Work” or “Focus To Dos” so that no unnecessary meetings get put on my calendar.

With this done, your brain won’t need to keep reminding you about to-do’s at random moments because they are documented. As a result, once your computer is closed, you can give all of your focus, attention, and mental power to your loved ones and life outside of work.

Then, when you open your computer to work the next day, you will be rested and ready to hit the ground running as you’ll know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it (more on this in future posts).

Use planning to take the reins of your work and life

“The best knowledge workers view their time like the best investors view their capital, as a resource to wield for maximum returns.”

-Cal Newport

Sure, planning is not novel or rocket science but the truth is, most of the secrets to success aren’t. They are small, purposeful actions you do daily that add up over time. Many people don’t know to do them or don’t do them consistently.

You may think you can manage it all in your head and that you know what you need to do each day. But acknowledging how our brains function and working to optimize them accordingly can make a huge difference.

While you may be able to keep it all in your head, doing so comes at a cost. It takes up space and reduces creativity. While you may know what you need to do, it is very easy to get pulled into the whims of people and their agendas.

By committing time to plan ahead each day, you are taking the reins of your work and personal life. You decide what will be a top priority for you and what will be handled later. You unload at the end of the day so you can truly enjoy your downtime. And you show up each morning knowing exactly what you need to do right off the bat.

Do you currently spend time at the end of each day planning for the following day? If so, what is your favorite tool?

Stay tuned next week for a dive into part 2 of my PREP process, Rest!

I am an active Strategic SaaS Seller with leading Conversational AI Company, LivePerson.

I have closed nearly $40M in sales with some of the world’s largest companies in less than 3 years using the PREP framework.

I have leveraged the lessons and experience of being an aspiring professional soccer player in Europe to climbing the ranks from SMB sales to Mid-Market to Enterprise and now Strategic sales.

I am a huge advocate of taking a more holistic approach and using the quantified self to deliver stellar professional results. Follow my content at #BrandonTechExec and connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.