8 Time Management II: The PowerHour™

Plan your work for today and every day, then work your

plan.

—Norman Vincent Peale

What’s the first thing you do every business morning?

Here’s our guess: You look at your e-mail, check your

voicemail, get yourself organized . . . and by the time you look

at the clock, it’s 11:00 A.M., and you wonder where your morning

went. Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to get hold

of your time and use it, as opposed to it using you. And maybe

you’ve made the same vow every New Year since 1985.

Your prospecting efforts will become far more effective if

you turn prospecting into a regular behavior, and not a “whenever

you have time” type of activity. How can you do that?

Welcome to PowerHour_.

PowerHour™

A PowerHour_ is one hour a day, five hours a week, that you

set aside to focus on a particular activity—in this case,

prospecting. The activity thus becomes a normal part of your

day rather than something you’ll get around to when you aren’t so busy. Tragic truth: The day will never come when

you aren’t busy.

TIP: Treat PowerHourTM like a workout in the morning,

and reward yourself for completing it. Order that

special cup of coffee. Treat yourself to something

you enjoy. Make a deal with yourself that if you

complete five honest PowerHoursTM in a week, you’ll

go to the mall and buy that whoopee cushion

you’ve had your eye on. Devise a reward structure

that works for you, and do yourself a favor. You’ll

have earned it.

There are three types of PowerHours_:

1. For the occasional prospector

2. For the medium prospector

3. For the heavy prospector

The Occasional Prospector

PowerHour_ for the occasional prospector is a great tool. You

will be able to do all of your account homework and cold calling

within the five hours a week time frame. Typically, you

should start by devoting 50 percent of those five hours to

homework and 50 percent to cold calling. The more you

prospect, the less time you should need to spend doing homework,

so your ratio will rise to something like 70 to 30 percent

in favor of cold calling.

The Medium Prospector

The medium prospector may require two PowerHours_ per

day. Devote one hour to homework and one to cold calling (or

spend half of each PowerHour_ on each of those two activities).

Whatever schedule you devise, stick to it. Try like crazy

not to break the routine you set up for yourself.

The Heavy Prospector

If your sales situation demands that you spend a majority of

your time prospecting, try to do your “homework” Power-

Hours_, in short, fifteen- to thirty-minute segments. This

gives you time to get into a groove when you are cold calling,

then do homework when you need a break. We think you’ll

find that you’ll be more productive that way. This should be a

daily behavior, not just something you practice every so often.

Don’t forget those game animals we talked about in the

Chapter 7. Focus on the Red Zone—the Buffalo Zone—during

your PowerHour_ times. That’s where you’ll find the best returns

on your time investment. Before you know it, you’ll be

able to buy yourself ten whoopee cushions

Time Management II: PowerHour™ 43

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Plan your work for today and every day, then work your

plan.

—Norman Vincent Peale

What’s the first thing you do every business morning?

Here’s our guess: You look at your e-mail, check your

voicemail, get yourself organized . . . and by the time you look

at the clock, it’s 11:00 A.M., and you wonder where your morning

went. Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to get hold

of your time and use it, as opposed to it using you. And maybe

you’ve made the same vow every New Year since 1985.

Your prospecting efforts will become far more effective if

you turn prospecting into a regular behavior, and not a “whenever

you have time” type of activity. How can you do that?

Welcome to PowerHour_.

PowerHour™

A PowerHour_ is one hour a day, five hours a week, that you

set aside to focus on a particular activity—in this case,

prospecting. The activity thus becomes a normal part of your

day rather than something you’ll get around to when you aren’t so busy. Tragic truth: The day will never come when

you aren’t busy.

TIP: Treat PowerHourTM like a workout in the morning,

and reward yourself for completing it. Order that

special cup of coffee. Treat yourself to something

you enjoy. Make a deal with yourself that if you

complete five honest PowerHoursTM in a week, you’ll

go to the mall and buy that whoopee cushion

you’ve had your eye on. Devise a reward structure

that works for you, and do yourself a favor. You’ll

have earned it.

There are three types of PowerHours_:

1. For the occasional prospector

2. For the medium prospector

3. For the heavy prospector

The Occasional Prospector

PowerHour_ for the occasional prospector is a great tool. You

will be able to do all of your account homework and cold calling

within the five hours a week time frame. Typically, you

should start by devoting 50 percent of those five hours to

homework and 50 percent to cold calling. The more you

prospect, the less time you should need to spend doing homework,

so your ratio will rise to something like 70 to 30 percent

in favor of cold calling.

The Medium Prospector

The medium prospector may require two PowerHours_ per

day. Devote one hour to homework and one to cold calling (or

spend half of each PowerHour_ on each of those two activities).

Whatever schedule you devise, stick to it. Try like crazy

not to break the routine you set up for yourself.

The Heavy Prospector

If your sales situation demands that you spend a majority of

your time prospecting, try to do your “homework” Power-

Hours_, in short, fifteen- to thirty-minute segments. This

gives you time to get into a groove when you are cold calling,

then do homework when you need a break. We think you’ll

find that you’ll be more productive that way. This should be a

daily behavior, not just something you practice every so often.

Don’t forget those game animals we talked about in the

Chapter 7. Focus on the Red Zone—the Buffalo Zone—during

your PowerHour_ times. That’s where you’ll find the best returns

on your time investment. Before you know it, you’ll be

able to buy yourself ten whoopee cushions

Time Management II: PowerHour™ 43

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