About This Episode

COVID has exposed a lot of blind spots in the way we all work. 

From networking to Zoom calls to emails, we’ve all noticed subtle little things that we used to think we were really good at that we actually could use a lot of work on. 

And nowhere has that been more highlighted than in the area of time management. 

For those of us that weren’t used to working from home, this work-from-home routine may have highlighted the myriad of ways in which we’re not nearly as good at time management as we thought. 

Which is why the Blitz is so important. 

What is the Blitz? On this episode of the Sales Engagement podcast, we sit down with Ryan West, National Accounts Manager at Choice Hotels, for a discussion all about the Blitz, and the ways that you can get forty, fifty, or even sixty percent better results, and use the time you have even more efficiently. 

None of us can get more time in a day, but we can all control the way we use our time. 

What Is the Blitz?

If you’re not familiar with the term “blitz,” it’s primarily a football term. It’s when the defense sends a higher than usual number of defenders to hurry the quarterback into getting rid of the ball. To put pressure on them. 

You may have heard before that if you just put 30 minutes a day into a particular task, you’ll start to chip away at it. 

Think, “I need to clean out my inbox. So if I just spend 10 minutes a day, I’ll have it cleaned up by the end of the week.” 

The Blitz is different. 

Imagine that you have a house that constantly requires you to pull weeds. If you don’t, they get out of hand. So you say to yourself, “I’m going to spend an hour each Saturday pulling weeds. I’ll start in one corner of my property and make my way all the way around.” 

And so every Saturday, you get your boots, gloves, bucket, and tools ready, and you put in an hour. And you do that every single week. 

Now imagine that instead of an hour a week, you decided, “This Saturday, I’m getting up at 8, and I’m spending 5 hours in the yard and I’m tackling the whole project all at once.”

Is it a time commitment? Sure. 

But once you do it, your next 3 Saturdays are yours until you have to deal with the pesky weeds again in a month. 

The Blitz is all about taking creative thinking and determination and applying it to the sales process to get the best results possible. 

Side Effects of the Blitz

When you start to make decisions and be deliberate about implementing the Blitz, there are side effects. 

Say you’re starting a podcast. 

And you’ve decided that your entire Friday is just dedicated to podcasts. Interviewing, editing, researching, etc. Could you split the job up and do it in chunks? Sure.

But beyond just getting the podcast done, think about all of the things that are happening at the same time. 

You’re learning about things you never learned about before. You’re building your network. You’re learning time management skills. You’re learning new software from scratch in order to get your episodes edited. You’re learning to drop your fear of doubt and reach out to your heroes and ask them to come on the show. 

The Blitz gives you that euphoric feeling of “I accomplished this thing.” 

What if in sales, you lived for that moment when you closed the deal? You know that taste of victory that comes with signing a deal, or seeing it through to completion. 

Now imagine if that feeling or process were cut into 4 pieces. It wouldn’t’ have nearly the impact as it does when that contract is finally signed. 

How to leverage the Blitz?

So you’re sold. 

How do you leverage the Blitz as an individual contributor? As a leader? 

Individual contributors, look at your CRM.

Take a database from your largest market and find the high probability prospects and go through the top 50. 

Now make sure that you have at least 3 decision makers in your CRM for that account. Instead of dragging out that one opportunity, you’re going to find low hanging fruit. You’re going to find opportunity in an account that you brushed aside because you thought you knew the whole story. 

Clean up that data. 

Maybe it takes a whole day. Or two days. 

But it’s worth it.

For leaders, what if you worked on a specific prospect niche. Say healthcare, or transportation or construction. Those industries have kept the country afloat for the past few months. 

Call and thank those prospects in those industries, and find out everything you need to know about what it’s taken for them to stay above water. Spend a whole weekend diving in and learning all about them. 

All of a sudden, you’ve become an expert on one of your high probability prospects. 

Key Takeaways

This whole notion can be distilled down to three simple steps. 

1. Don’t assume that a task is too big to tackle in one sitting. 
2. Take a good hard look at how effective you are on any given day. 
3. Put 100% of your focus and attention into a task. 

That’s it. That’s all the Blitz is. 

And you can do that, right? 

This post is based on a podcast interview with Ryan West To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast.

If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.

For more engaging sales conversations, subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.