At first glance you might think I’m encouraging you to pick a fight with a TSA agent and then consume copious amounts of your favorite hoppy beer while swarmed by security guards. I wouldn’t recommend any of these choices unless you enjoy spending time in an airport detention room, reflecting on your ill-guided transgressions. What I am referring to is a way to continue driving revenue regardless of what the day may throw at you.
I was sitting in an airport restaurant in Dallas last week, working on the draft for this article, facing a full day of air travel, and wanting to stay productive. A 65-minute sliver of time in-between flights was gold for me that day.
Like most revenue drivers, (people responsible for generating income for an organization or themselves) I’m insanely busy. Even though I spend most of my time coaching clients, there are a multitude of other tasks I must do to keep the business going. I have to file paperwork and documents, take care of weekly accounting, return phone calls, and travel to and from meetings with colleagues. The most important activities I need to squeeze in every day (no matter what) are: landing new clients, driving more revenue and growing my business!
Some days, these all-important items seem impossible to accomplish given the distractions I have to deal with; it’s a wonder anything ever gets done at all. Texts buzz in, emails pile up, stacks of new operational reports have to be run, clients need my attention, and countless last minute emergencies pop up that sometimes seem to ONLY find their way to me.
I’m sure you’ve got your own version of this conundrum. With all this stuff going on, how do you make sure you are devoting time to driving revenue every day no matter how sideways your day gets?
Back to sitting in a Dallas airport restaurant…
Before my day started, I’d identified the layover in between flights as the perfect time to tackle my blog writing for the week. I also needed to compose and send out two follow up emails to prospects I’d met during my time in Dallas, both of whom had the potential to significantly impact my revenue production for the month. I managed to knock out both emails before I had even arrived at the airport.
I will share an easy process to help you identify the activities you need to do in order to keep your revenue stream flowing and growing…even if you are traveling.
It all starts before your first cup of morning coffee.
10 minutes before your workday starts, find a quiet location and write down the BIGGEST IPA you want to knock out during the day. IPA means Income Producing Activity, defined as any activity that has a direct impact on your money-making potential. Some examples are:
- Making sales calls
- Meeting with prospective clients
- Training up a new territory rep
- Networking and meeting with good referral sources
- Posting on social media about a upcoming workshop you are providing
After you’ve spent time nailing down your most important IPA, also include what you would consider a close second.
It’s important to actually write down these two tasks because it feels great to cross these things off your to-do list at the end of the day, knowing they are likely going to drive more money!
Next – write down your BIGGEST TSA which means Time Saving Activity. Many people may have heard of a TSA but not in the context of its direct impact on an IPA. In this framework it is defined as any activity which, upon its completion, amplifies the effectiveness of your IPAs.
Some examples of a TSA:
- Creating well-crafted email templates for prospect correspondences so you don’t waste time crafting the perfect response for each email like a wordsmith;
- Entering all your prospects into a CRM database, thus automating your interaction with all of them with a click of a button;
- Spending time organizing your calendar for the week so you can efficiently run appointments consecutively with no dead time, and blocking specific time during each day to make your outbound calls;
- Hiring a virtual assistant to schedule all of your appointments for you, leaving you with more time to find more clients.
Once you’ve written down your top 2 IPAs and an effective TSA, the next thing to do is schedule times during the day to knock them out. Imagine the impact this 10-minute activity would have on your bottom line if you practiced it EVERY day!
It even works when your day flies off the rails. No matter how nuts your day gets you will probably get a least a 10-minute window to come up for air; that’s the time to whip out this list and knock out part, some, or all of it out—even if it’s just making one phone call.
Consistently identifying and knocking out your most important IPAs on a daily basis will keep you on the path of financial growth. Spending time working on your TSAs helps you be exponentially more effective in your revenue driving…in the future.
Use this simple approach and you will always be moving in the right direction—the direction of growth!
