This is simply a great article so I am going to reproduce it here but please jump over to The Sales Blog to read more wisdom. I especially appreciate number 8 – Monday mornings are great for saying, “Thank you for your business!” as it sets the tone for the entire week.

I did add a number 9.

****

Wait. Don’t open your email inbox. Don’t go straight into reactive mode, searching for something to do, and making your choice on what you feel like doing. Instead, do what’s most important.

1. Educate Yourself: On your way to work, listen to an audio book, listen to a podcast, or read a book, magazine, or journal article that will help you grow and develop both personally and professionally.
2. Prospect: There is nothing more important than prospecting. Spend the first hour dialing the phone, calling your dream clients to ask them for an appointment. No matter what happens the rest of the day, you will already have done more prospecting than most.
3. Nurture: Call, email, or find some other way to nurture the contacts inside your dream client’s company. Share something of value, something that will help them understand something about themselves and their business and compel them to change. You need to be known as a value creator.
4. Move Late Cycle Deals: You know that big deal you are working on that’s in the closing stages of your sales process? Do whatever work is necessary to move that deal forward. If you haven’t gained the commitment you need, do that.
5. Move Earlier Deals: The deals that are in the middle of your process need attention too. Do whatever needs to be done to move those deals forward. (See what we have done here. We have done the most future-oriented work first by prospecting and nurturing dream clients. Then we moved on to the work around deals that are live and need attention now).
6. Check Your Email and Respond to Voice Mail: You can’t ignore this work. Most of what is in your inbox doesn’t require your attention, but three or four emails require you do something now. Take care of what needs to be done, and leave the rest of the emails for the time you block to process email.
7. Follow Up with Existing Clients: You sold your clients some outcome they couldn’t achieve without you. Follow up with them to make sure that they are generating the results you promised them.
8. Send Thank You Cards: When was the last time you sent your clients a thank you card? Gratitude is the biggest of big deals. When was the last time you did something nice to say thank you to the operations people who execute what you sell? Do something to appreciate the people who trust you with their business, and the people you trust to serve your clients.

****

Sean’s 9: Schedule relevant posts for the entire week on LinkedIn and Twitter using a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.

What is your best practice for Monday morning activity? Should there be 10 or 11 or 12 items on this list?

Photo by .mollymason.