Putting the "Power" in Power Hours – A closer look at the benefits of this tried and trusted prospecting strategy

Chances are that each and every one of us have witnessed these symptoms before, especially if you’re a direct contributor. Most jobs come with a challenging sales activity metric which is attached to the role you take when you first start off. You were most likely to hit this target than to miss it. Your excitement level was high, you wanted to show your new employer your incredible work ethic and your commitment to your craft. 

But things become a little fuzzier soon. Knowingly or unknowingly, you seem to be spending time on other tasks and de-prioritizing on those prospecting calls and emails where someone might (and more often than not) say no to you.  You are subtly beginning to multi-task. And at first it is extremely gratuitous and strangely fulfilling because you appear and feel busy all day. But the truth is that this subtlety is lost on no one. You probably haven’t done much at all. 

Out of nowhere, your pipeline is starting to shrink, your conversations with your manager are starting to get more and more uncomfortable, and you can't seem to figure out what’s going wrong! Surely, everyone must have missed how hard you’ve been working and the multitude of tasks that you’ve managed to complete!

I can almost imagine you sighing while you read that last line. Most of us professional sales people or direct sales contributors feel the pain and live it all day long.  But fret no more because there is a solution and we call it a "Power Hour".

A Power Hour is an incredibly helpful calling strategy. It sounds very intriguing but, in all honesty, it may not be new for a lot of the readers. Nevertheless, I thought I would take some time and reflect on this simple strategy and the impact it can have on your success. 

A Power Hour simply means a dedicated block of time where you commit to the task at hand, which in this case is prospecting. Sounds way too simple, but there are a couple of catches. All distractions will be ignored, all emails will go unchecked, all social accounts will be left alone, all text messages will go unread, and all interruptions in your work-space will be politely asked to wait.  This is just a hint of the tons of distractions that are hurled at us every minute of every day.  By virtue of using your Power Hour effectively, your prospecting activities will help you achieve your sales activities every day with time to spare.  You will be less stressed out, have more energy at the end of the day, and surprisingly you will actually have more time that you can allocate to other things. And all of these are guaranteed.

While it does sound easy, working a Power Hour is extremely hard and you might want to consider committing to a dial block or ‘Power Hour’ing with a colleague.  You can either be in the same office or miles apart, it really doesn't make a difference. When you choose to Power Hour with a colleague, you will often find the urge to chase a distraction too compelling but you’ll stop short and stay on task simply because of your commitment to your colleague who you know is working hard during the block as well. That’s the power of reinforcement at its best.

Here’s my personal experience with this strategy. I once had 3 sales representatives that so effectively mastered this technique that I, in fact, got complaints from the other managers because they would see them walking around, socializing, and spending too much time in the kitchen.  I had to correct the manager's assumptions that they were not working hard and explain to them that they had cracked the code of reaching targets while having time to unwind.

Instead of a long drawn out day involving distractions, complaints, making a couple calls here, a couple emails there, running out of time at the end of the day exhausted and remorseful, they would hold two Power Hours a day, without exception, and hold each other to it. And it worked wonders.

Now that I’ve given away the clues to cracking the eternal work life puzzle, let me know what you think of the Power Hour. Does it work all the time and are there any troubles that you face while applying it? And as always don’t forget to watch this space for more on Sales Enablement techniques and more!