Become a Student of Your Calendar

Summary

Episode Summary: Become a Student of Your Calendar

Podcast: The Advanced Selling Podcast
Hosts: Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale
Episode Title: Become a Student of Your Calendar
Release Date: June 4, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, hosts Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale delve into the critical strategy of mastering one's calendar to minimize chaos and enhance sales effectiveness. Drawing on insights from renowned sales strategist David Meltzer, Bryan provides a comprehensive framework for sales professionals to optimize their time management and propel their careers forward.

Introduction to Calendar Mastery

Bryan Neal kicks off the episode by addressing the common challenge sales professionals face: managing an ever-packed schedule without feeling overwhelmed. He introduces the concept of being a "student of your calendar," emphasizing the necessity of treating one's schedule as the most valuable asset.

Bryan Neal [05:11]: "You need to be the valedictorian of your calendar. You need to be the best calendar studier and thinker that has ever existed."

The Concept of Being a Student of Your Calendar

Drawing inspiration from his coach, David Meltzer, Bryan outlines the foundational principles of calendar management. He stresses the importance of not just reviewing the calendar superficially but studying it meticulously down to five-minute increments.

Bryan Neal [05:10]: "To reduce your chaos as a salesperson, you need to learn to be a student of your calendar."

Key Principles:

1. Treat the Calendar as a Fixed Asset: Acknowledge that time is finite and prioritize its allocation to maximize sales opportunities.
2. Detailed Review: Break down the calendar from yearly overviews to minute-by-minute scheduling to identify gaps and opportunities.

Practical Steps to Implement Calendar Mastery

Bryan provides a step-by-step guide on how sales professionals can implement calendar mastery to streamline their workflows and eliminate unnecessary chaos.

1. Yearly Planning

Objective: Set long-term goals and identify major events that will drive sales initiatives.

Bryan Neal [07:04]: "Hold big space now. So you're just monthly looking ahead one time a month, real quick, not, not hours, minutes. And look ahead, boom, there's that May event."

Action Items:

• Schedule major events like trade shows, webinars, and client appreciation days well in advance.
• Allocate time for strategic planning sessions to map out the year's sales targets.

2. Quarterly Planning

Objective: Break down annual goals into manageable quarterly objectives to maintain momentum and track progress.

Bryan Neal [07:15]: "When you're thinking quarters ahead... setting a goal for early renewals... that's the kind of stuff we're talking about."

Action Items:

• Review quarterly performance metrics and adjust strategies accordingly.
• Plan for contract renewals and prospecting efforts in upcoming quarters.

3. Monthly Planning

Objective: Focus on monthly goals and ensure alignment with quarterly and annual objectives.

Bryan Neal [12:34]: "Look at that every freaking day. Every day I'm studying, studying to be a validator in my calendar."

Action Items:

• Conduct monthly look-aheads to identify key activities and deadlines.
• Schedule time for networking events and pipeline reviews.

4. Weekly Planning

Objective: Organize weekly tasks to ensure consistent progress towards monthly and quarterly goals.

Bryan Neal [07:15]: "Organize your calendar monthly and look at the quarters regularly to stay aligned with your objectives."

Action Items:

• Allocate specific days for client meetings, prospecting, and administrative tasks.
• Identify and fill gaps where potential sales activities are missing.

5. Daily Planning

Objective: Manage daily activities with precision to maximize productivity.

Bryan Neal [12:34]: "Every day I'm studying, studying to be a validator in my calendar."

Action Items:

• Begin each day with a review of scheduled meetings and tasks.
• Prioritize activities that drive sales and defer or delegate non-essential tasks.

6. Five-Minute Increment Analysis

Objective: Fine-tune meeting durations and optimize time allocation.

Bryan Neal [12:34]: "If I've got a 20-minute meeting, could the 20-minute meeting be 15 minutes?"

Action Items:

• Evaluate the necessity of each meeting’s duration.
• Shorten meetings where possible to increase overall productivity and respect others’ time.

Tools and Resources Mentioned

Bryan highlights the Blind Zebra Sales Operating System as a pivotal tool in implementing effective calendar management. He encourages listeners to explore certification classes and join the community for further support.

Bryan Neal [04:18]: "To reduce your chaos as a salesperson, you need to learn to be a student of your calendar."

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Bryan Neal wraps up the episode by reiterating the transformative power of disciplined calendar management. By adopting a student mindset towards their schedules, sales professionals can significantly reduce chaos, enhance efficiency, and ultimately achieve greater sales success.

Bryan Neal [12:34]: "If you get planful about your calendar as a sales professional, look at that as an asset and then study it like I just taught you. The year to the quarter, to the month, of the week, to the day, to the minute."

Key Takeaways:

• Proactive Planning: Anticipate future needs and schedule major events ahead of time.
• Detailed Scheduling: Break down your calendar to the minutiae to identify and fill gaps.
• Efficiency Optimization: Regularly review and adjust meeting durations to maximize productivity.
• Consistency: Maintain a routine of regular calendar reviews at all planning levels (yearly to daily).

By following the strategies outlined in this episode, sales professionals can master their calendars, reduce operational chaos, and create a structured path to sustained sales success.

Transcript

[Bill]

Foreign.

[Brian Neal]

Welcome everybody, to the advanced selling podcast, the longest running sales training podcast in the history of podcasts. My name is Brian Neal. Flying solo. I'm flying solo. I'm flying solo. Jason Derulo. Right? Come on, kids, where are we at? Someone correct me, Jason Derulo. I think if I'm flying solo. Flying solo. Hey, we're powered by the Blind Zebra sales operating system. Come see what it's like to get certified in the Blind Zebra sales operating system. We're filling up a July certification class. Remember, the company pays for this, not you as an individual. Sales leaders, I'm telling you, we've got a few Advanced selling podcast listeners. As certified coaches, they would tell you stuff's pretty cool. Pretty cool. Come here for three days, get certified in July with us. Just go to blind-zebra.com or send an email bzsos blind-zebra.com we can talk about how the whole thing works, how much it costs and all the details and all that other stuff. But cool thing, we got 81 certified coaches running around coaching about a thousand salespeople right now. And that number is growing very rapidly. We'd love to have you as part of the team. Second reminder. Thursday, June 5 Thursday, June 5, 2025, 2:00pm Eastern I'm hosting a webinar called you can't coach chaos. You sure as hell can't train it. You can't coach chaos. You sure so can't train it. It's for sales leaders. Salespeople. Here's a good little give to your sales leader. Just shoot them this episode and say, hey, listen to this. Brian Neal been listening Van Selling podcast for a while. He's doing a a little thing for sales leaders. It is a great topic. You can't coach chaos and sure, so can't train. We're going to talk about why some of the focus around training and stuff isn't as effective as it could be and what to do instead. We're going to give you two very, very practical tools you can use right out of the gate that are inspired. Not the whole tool from the sales operating system, but close to it to do that. So that's the scoop. Let's see in the Midwest where Bill and I record this fabulous episode. It is springtime and it's just great. I am coming to terms. I'm getting older. I don't feel old. I just don't feel old. And everyone says you don't feel old, but I really don't feel old. Not even my body as much. But I'm in. I'VE been in denial, I think, for about 20 years that I have allergies. And almost anyone that lives in the Midwest will tell you they all have allergies. And my doctor would say, like, oh, you're lucky you don't have allergies. I'm like, I'm in denial because I have these, like, massive, massive, like, sneezing, itchy eye, you know, gross, like snot, like Farmer's blow. Is that a thing everywhere? Is that just a Midwest thing? You know, it's like I was on a walk this morning. It's like, you know, like, just foaming out of my nose and, like, I don't have allergies. I love allergies. On your face is five times its size. So I think I'm coming to terms with that. But it's gorgeous out. We just love it here. And a great topic for today. I'm going to talk a little bit again, adjacent about what you. What are some things that you need that in the spirit of you can't coach? Chaos. What are some things that are some things that bring less chaos, Less chaos to our world? If you're a fan of the Office, and I know a lot of you young people have watched every episode, and if I told you anything about any episode, you know what episode it is. So this is the episode. There's two elements to it where there was a bat in the office and Michael went to business school. And I think it's called business school. And it's my favorite episode. It's fantastic when Michael Scott gives his talk to an MBA class, a college MBA class. I think it's mba. Anyway, it's very funny, but he goes through these five things that you need if in. In business. And he says the first thing you need, you need a building, which is as a business owner. That's the last thing you need is a building, typically. And he talks about other things that you need and the five types of businesses. Railroads, supermarkets, hospitals, and sales. And just. It's just really funny. Anyway, I'm going to talk about what do you need to get out of some chaos? What do you need to get out of some chaos? I'm going to give you a couple of tools, again, inspired by the Blind Zebra Sales operating System. That will help you, as a sales professional, be less chaotic.

[David Meltzer]

Okay.

[Brian Neal]

Okay. The first thing that you need is you need. This is straight from my coach, David Meltzer. Love David Meltzer. Actually met David Meltzer on a cold call to ask him to be on my podcast. And I interviewed him at 7am on a Sunday, randomly. He was in Indianapolis. He's a great human being, but he talks about this. To reduce your chaos as a salesperson, you need to learn to be a student of your calendar. A student, and I'm gonna add, Dave always says, be a student of your calendar. If you ask Dave what's the number one advice you give business people say be a student of your calendar. I'm gonna go a little deeper than Dave's thing. You need to be the valedictorian of your calendar. You need to be the best calendar studier and thinker that has ever existed. Okay, so let's talk about what that means to reduce chaos in your sales life, to be a student of your calendar.

[David Meltzer]

Okay?

[Brian Neal]

The first thing it means is you've got to look at your calendar as this is cliche, as the only asset you've got to work with at the core. It's all fixed. We got the same amount. It's cliche stuff, I know, but it's the truth. And you got to look at, I've got this asset, how am I deploying the asset to get more from my sales territory? That's the idea here. All right, and by study, the next thing Dave teaches us is you've got to study it down to the five minute increment. All right? Now this is something that most of you do not do, guaranteed. You do not do this. You look at your calendar broad faced and you look at it one week at a time.

[David Meltzer]

Okay?

[Brian Neal]

I'm gonna teach you now to do that differently. I want you to look at it as much as a year at a time and then down to the five minute increment and everything in between. All right, so let's talk about that. Most people, salespeople, you either do your review Sunday night, some of you will do it Friday before you leave. You'll review the next week and you, you'll look at your calendar or you'll look at it Sunday night. Some of you, it's the next day, you're like, what do I have tomorrow? Okay, from today's episode, from now on, to be the valedictorian student of your calendar, I want you to think about both looking more broadly at it. So we're going to look at weeks, months, quarters in the year and we're going to pull back to, in the short term, five minute increments. Okay, let's do both of those. Let's talk about the broad picture first.

[Bill]

The advanced selling podcast two minute Drill is powered by the Blind Zebra sales Operating system. A curated collection of field proven tools that make selling simple to solve your biggest sales problems and drive immediate results. Stop chasing prospects. Stop being ghosted and get stalled deals moving again.

[Brian Neal]

Learn [e-mail] I just put something on my calendar for December 19, 2025. The recording date for this is May 16, 2025.

[David Meltzer]

Okay.

[Brian Neal]

I want you to start to have monthly look aheads a year out. Monthly look aheads a year out. So we are going to be sitting and planning an entire year's calendar, 2026. And we're going to do that in two weeks. So that's what is that the two plus 14, May 30th. And we're going to plan big events for 2026. In May of 2025. Most salespeople, you do not do this. Okay? Think about things in the sales, what you're like, what would I do, Bri? Think about trade show stuff. Trade shows to attend. Think about learning events to go to. Think about hub selling. Think about hosting an event. Here's an idea. We're in Indianapolis, Indiana. It's the month of May. The month of May is like a celebratory month because of the Indy 500. The whole month. There's all sorts of events. I'm actually going after I record this, I'm going out to the track to an event. If you live in Indianapolis, you would plan an event for May of 2026 right now that you would invite customers and prospects to go ahead and put it on your calendar now. Broad, big things to bring people to you. We call that a bug light. Bill's awesome. He's as good as I know Bill. Is it about drawing people to you as a salesperson? All right. Way easier. Better than going out and cold calling. What happens if you don't hold the space now for May of 2026? You never will because you're so used to looking at the days and the weeks when it, when the calendar turns in 2026, January, February, trying to start Fasta. Then all of a sudden it's March 28th. You're like, oh, you know, I should think about doing something at the track. And it's already booked up or you're already booked up. So hold big space now. So you're just monthly looking ahead one time a month, real quick, not, not hours, minutes. And look ahead, boom, there's that May event. And I've got that on the calendar. You can always change it. You can always change it. But hold this space now. So that's the first thing is looking ahead that. Now let's go back to quarters. So you're about midway through at the recording of this if I don't care when you're listening to this, but wherever you are in the quarters where you are. So right now we're, you know, for March, April, major dead center out most of the day, dead center of Q2. Okay, I want to already. Which we are. I know, a blind zebra. We're already working Q3 hard. Right now we're working Q3 really hard. I've got sales calls this week for Q3 stuff. Lots of sales calls for Q3 stuff. I've got one in process for Q4 already and it's May 16th. Look ahead, do not get out of the week and think, what do I need to have? What big prospect do I need to get in motion? What big renewal do I have? One of my clients I was just at in Los Angeles this week and we talked about setting a goal for early renewals. So if someone's in a three year contract and we're in year one and a half, let's look at Q3 and 4 of 2025, getting those extended so we have a longer contract. That's the kind of stuff we're talking about. When you're thinking quarters ahead again, your quarterly look at monthly or I'm sorry, monthly. Once a month you're looking yearly. Once a month you're looking quarterly and you're constantly out. You may ramp that up if you need to, to every other week or something. But you're thinking, this is my quarterly calendar look, you're going to be a valedictorian of your calendar if you do this. Promise. Okay, now we're looking at the month. So we're sitting here May 16, I want to look now if I look at my calendar every time I look at my calendar on a daily basis, which I study it like it's my job, I'm looking all the way to the July 4th holiday. All, everything I'm going, the weeks I'm scrolling through, I'm seeing what's coming, what's not, what's missing, where I've got holes, where I've got gaps to fill, that sort of thing. So you were taking a monthly look then, you're doing that almost daily now. You may not have that habit like I do. I want you to get that habit where you're looking at the month and you're constantly looking out. Because we've got a couple holidays in here. I'm already looking up to the July 4th weekend. Okay, looking out. Okay, now we get to the weeks on the weeks. What we want to look at is we want to take a two week snapshot forward from wherever we are. And we want to look at now down to the minutes. Now we're going to start to get into the five minute increments. What do I have scheduled internal and external and is that serving me? Because that's a fixed asset that I have. So an example would be I'll do it here live. So it's May 16th as I'm recording this episode. It's May 16th pulled away from the microphone. You think by now I would know not to do that. And so I'm going to look at May 30 in the first week of June. So I know I've got, I'm scanning my calendar now and this is what I want you to do. I'm going to be out of town for NFL stuff for three days of this time period. Then I'm looking what I have in here and something I'm seeing here. I've got a webinar June 5th that I already told you about. I've got a group of people that I used to work with coming in and I've got a keynote speech. So I'm already thinking ahead. I know I've got a one slide thing to, to change on my keynote. That's for June 5th. I've got to change that. I know I've got this webinar. So I've got to get with the marketing team, which we have meetings for that to make sure that we're promoting that the proper way. And I've got to make sure that I am ready for my stuff that I've got to do for the and the NFL when I'm away.

[David Meltzer]

Okay.

[Brian Neal]

What's missing here for me is I have no sales calls this week. So my brain turns to, huh, is there someone, is there a connector meeting that I could have to get? Because I've got no sales activity booked that week. So I'm doing, I'm showing you this live right now. And I'm thinking in my mind, okay, I've got, you know, these two potential customers in the mix. I know I've got one that just popped in my head. We had two CFDs, clear future dates scheduled. We had to bounce. Now I think, hey, I could put that one out in that week. I take it to do. I go shoot a note to that woman. She's a sales regional sales manager for a company here in Indianapolis to Go grab coffee or he come to our shop and I want to plant that on that weekend or on that week, rather not on the weekend, okay? That's the look ahead. That's how I want you to think. You're looking for holes. What you're not looking for is what do I have coming up? You're looking for what do I not have coming up that I should have. You hear me? It's really important. Don't look for what I have coming up, look for what I don't have coming up that I should have coming up. And trigger that into an action or a behavior, which I just did and will do as soon as we hang up here. This is how we do it. All right? Now we're going to look at the weeks and the weeks. We're really going to study the minutes. And here we're going to look down to the five minute increment and we're going to ask ourselves, does this meeting need to be as long as it is? This comes from a book called Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. It's called pruning. Something that we teach all of our blind zebra clients to do. We prune our calendars on a regular basis, regular meeting, quarterly. We prune. We're going through that right now and we just look and say, if I've got a 20 minute meeting, could the 20 minute meeting be 15 minutes? If I've got a 15 minute meeting, could it be done in 10? Look at the five minute increments. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to set a 15 minute meeting with someone and how thankful they are when you do it instead of doing all 30s and 45s. So now I'm looking at the 5 minute increment level. And I'm looking at that every freaking day. Every day I'm studying, studying to be validator in my calendar. All right? That is what you need to start to have less chaos in your life. I promise you, if you get planful about your calendar as a sales professional, look at that as an asset and then study it like I just taught you. The year to the quarter, to the month, of the week, to the day, to the minute. If you study that and you ask yourself what's not on here that should be versus what most of you are doing, which is you're reviewing next week and go, I got a pretty busy week, pretty good week. Are you like, I got a pretty light week. And then if you're, you know, an average performer, which no ASP people are, you're like, I gotta. I got a light week. Oh, that's good. I'll call my buddy, see if he wants to play golf. Okay, don't do that either. All right, that's it. Go to blind-zebra.com. join the advanced selling podcast group. Please join the group. We're going to be putting a lot of stuff in there this summer. We're gonna have, like, a little intern producer helping us out with that to get that trail more activated, if you will. Most people don't naturally go to groups and join insider. For goodness sakes. I say it all the time. Join Bill's insider program. It's just awesome. It's the best bang for the buck there is. That's it. All right, [e-mail] See you next time. Cheers. Bye. Sa.