Let these 10 sales productivity tips show you how to conquer the insurance industry and hone your ADHD superpowers.
World-renowned salespeople like Sir Richard Branson, David Neeleman, and Ingvar Kamprad have at least two things in common. They are successful entrepreneurs, and they probably follow at least a few of these sales productivity tips. There’s one more important thing they have in common: they have ADHD.
Unfortunately, the world has stigmatized this condition as the inability to focus, and how could people not jump to conclusions with three negative words in a row: Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder…but it’s much more than that, as you most likely already know.
Many people with ADHD complain that they are either unable to focus at all, or are so focused that the outside world disappears. And if you don’t have ADHD, but you know a salesperson who thrives on deadlines but is characterized as a chronic procrastinator, then you may very well know a salesperson with ADHD.
No matter where you lie on the spectrum of ADHD, you can use quirks to achieve your goals. No self-loathing or guilt allowed! For example, you can turn high energy and drive— a formidable combination in the business world—into a sales asset and hone your hyper-focus on tasks that matter.
10 of the best sales productivity tips to transform your career and use ADHD as a superpower.
1. Create a schedule.
One of the top habits of successful salespeople is effective time management. With ADHD, you might find yourself starting too many tasks at once. How many browser tabs do you have going right now? Be honest. How many projects are you in the middle of? You may find it helpful to plan a day ahead. Walking into your day with it already laid out and knowing what to start first can be visually beneficial in guiding you from one task to another. Having no to-do list is the best way to get into a jumble of to-dos.
2. Inject some fun into your schedule.
Sometimes when we work for ourselves, or deadlines are loose, it’s hard to get motivated to complete any one thing. If you find that you’re more in a high-distraction zone during the day instead of hyper-focus, you might find it helpful to enchant your to-dos. For example, create a to-do list with sticky notes so you can get the satisfaction of taking them down when you complete the task. Compartmentalizing each task and turning each one into a mini competition to complete can make a daily workload seem less overwhelming. Crunching each post-it into a ball and throwing it in the trash when the task is complete is also particularly satisfying – as is the overwhelm of an extensive sticky-note list getting reduced to nothing.
3. Start your day with enjoyable tasks.
Think of the best parts of being an insurance agent, and start your day with them. Part of ideal self-care practices for anybody with ADHD is to turn boulders into pebbles.
Prioritizing tasks you enjoy can help you function well without feeling overwhelmed. Always begin your workday with the fun stuff — whether it’s prospecting, filling out paperwork, or settling claims. Then, if you’ve already started your day off and realize it’s almost noon, do any one productive thing. Sometimes we start the day thinking of the biggest, most overwhelming task, which can cause us to forget ten tiny things that still need to get done, and getting those ten things done while you’re not in the zone is still productive and might ease you into “the zone.”
4. Start your day with a win.
Apart from starting your day with something enjoyable, choose a task you have a 100% chance of succeeding. For example, create a sales script before calling about policy renewals. Doing so helps you work through the rest of your to-do list with a buzz from your sure win. Or, heck, maybe there’s a lead you meant to follow up with, and it’s heavy on your shoulders. We often forget that those tiny things taking up our mind space are just as big as the “really big things” when it comes to focusing.
5. Include prioritization reasons.
For example, if you have a follow-up call on your to-do list for the day, you can add a note stating you can potentially close the sale. If that note waits three days, those chances get lower, so the visual reminders can help, as can the motivation to cross it off your to-do list.
6. Overestimate your time allocation.
Time-blocking is helpful for neurotypical people, and some people with ADHD find it helpful as well, but when you’re in “the zone,” it can seem like no time has passed, and suddenly you’re wondering who turned out the lights, and “when did it become 8 pm?” When time-blocking, you might find it helpful to allow an extra half hour or more for tasks, because if you don’t, adding a new task of re-blocking your time-blocking calendar is more of a hindrance than a help.
7. Minimize distractions.
Finishing tedious tasks is challenging enough for people with ADHD. You don’t want to open yourself to distractions and restart anything on your to-do list multiple times. Try noise-canceling headphones or social media-blocking apps while you work. They may not work 100% of the time, but many people find them helpful. The iPhone even has a screentime feature where you can ask someone, like a partner, to set a password only they know, and you can block specific apps on certain days and set time limits for the apps so that you will be less likely to waste precious time during the workday. You can always scroll after work!
8. Underpromise your deliverables.
You know, there is so much power in procrastination, truly. And when you have ADHD, it’s practically a superpower that once the pedal needs to hit the metal, a seven-hour work binge can make up for the last 20 hours you spent distracting yourself from starting the project. Deadlines also become epic finish lines, and while you might take pride in delivering work at 4 am, the timestamp on your email to a boss or client tells another story. So there may be cases where you can set goals for yourself that are higher than what you set for your employer or client. For instance, if you feel you can close seven appointments per week, declare five meetings. Doing so gives you more flexibility if any prospect cancels on you and takes off the pressure to find new clients at the last minute.
9. Reward yourself.
This one goes out to those who hit a groove and power straight through lunch before realizing they haven’t stood up in six or seven hours before remembering faintly the sounds of people talking to them at some points. Oops? That’s a great(ish) ADHD superpower, and if you’re a fan of intermittent fasting, it’s also a practical strategy. However, when you hit the finish line, reward yourself with a break if you find it hard to start the next one. Do something completely different. Leave the room, eat lunch. The change of scenery could be the reset you need, or it might just be a good time to pack it in for the day and congratulate yourself on a job well done. If you don’t, the repercussion that many people with ADHD find is that it’s challenging to focus on a new task after fully completing a more significant project. But if that’s not the case, power on!
10. Find an accountability partner.
No matter how hard you work on boosting your productivity, you might still feel isolated if you don’t have an accountability partner. Sharing your plan with a partner, coach, or colleague can help you break down your goals into actionable steps. If you work from home and tend to go into hyper-focus zones, it may also be polite to put up a note (or a sticky note) that lets your colleagues or family know when you’re in the zone. Of course, you may have to explain it to them, but it certainly helps to avoid arguments later on about why you’re not paying attention if someone is trying to talk to you. (If you know, you know!)
These sales productivity tips can help you elevate your career as an insurance agent. However, if the thought of prospecting terrifies you, HBW Leads can provide you with exclusive double-verified leads. Working with HBW Leads gives you more time for things that matter most, like achieving your dreams.
Getting over your fears takes time, but the results will be worth it. Request a personalized package now to jumpstart your growth journey.