My 8 Step Energy Audit

Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday. 

The Celtics raised banner 18 and are back on top of the NBA so all is well and good in the world again 🙂

Don’t worry, that’s the last time I’ll mention it (until we win another one ;)) 

This past week was one of those weird, inefficient weeks for me. 

I’m not sure if you’re the same as me but it seems like when I’m super busy I am way more efficient and get way more done than when I’m not.  

If I have too many open spots on my calendar I tend to be all over the place with what I do during that “free time.”

I had to get back to the basics like goal setting, prioritization and time blocking.   

I also did an energy audit to reflect on the things that give me energy and avoid the ones that don’t.  

I’ll share the process with you in this week’s Tactical Tips section.

SALES FROM THE STREETS: Why I Love Sales 

TACTICAL TIPS: Where to focus your energy 

SALES RESOURCES: Send me yours

SALES FROM THE STREETS 

Why I Love Sales  

Before COVID I was on a plane almost every week. I flew over 2 Million miles in less than 10 years.

Sounds fun until you realize I have a 13-year-old daughter and I was basically a weekend dad for the first 10 years of her life (which I am not proud of).

Most of the travel was for training but I also went to almost every event/conference/dinner I could go to.

COVID was actually the best thing that ever happened to me because it forced me off of a plane and to restructure my business, priorities and life. 

Now, I rarely travel or go out to events, but when I do I want to make sure I get the most out of the trip or event in whatever way I can. 

This week I was invited to a dinner event by a group I belong to called Modern Sales Professionals.

The quality of attendees, and therefore conversations, is always strong at these events but the main reason I decided to go was to see my friend and colleague Lori Richardson who I hadn’t seen in person for a while. 

We met early at the bar to grab a drink before everyone else showed up. 

As we caught up I was reminded of her story and how a career in Sales (and a lot of hard work) allowed her to rise above all the challenges and obstacles she has faced throughout her life. 

The beauty of Sales is that it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from, you can succeed if you’re willing to put in the work. 

Lori is a shining example of why I believe so strongly that Sales is one of the greatest professions in the world when done right but one of the worst when done wrong. 

Let’s keep celebrating people like Lori who do it right!  

TACTICAL TIPS  

Where to focus your energy 

My conversation with Lori gave me the energy boost I needed to get back on track from the inefficient week I was having.  

The next day I grabbed my whiteboard and rewrote my goals and priorities for the rest of the year and made sure I backed into how I was going to accomplish them.

Then, I did my “Energy Audit” to find out what I should focus more of my efforts on and things I need to stop or remove from my life. 

This audit isn’t like most of the energy content out there that talks about when you should be doing certain things throughout the day that align with your energy level.

This is about what GIVES you energy and what sucks it out of you. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Write down your goals for the remainder of the year (personally and professionally) 

2. Take a piece of paper or whiteboard and draw a line for an X-axis and another one for a Y-axis to create 4 quadrants

3. On the X-axis write “Goals”

4. On the Y axis write “Energy”

5. In the upper right quadrant write “(+) Goals (+) Energy” 

6. In the upper left quadrant write “(--) Goals (+) Energy”

7. In the bottom left quadrant write “(--) Goals (--) Energy”

8. In the bottom right quadrant write “(+) Energy (--) Goals”

Your chart should look like this:

Once you have that chart, write down everything you’re doing into one of those quadrants including processes, activities, friends, family, different types of meetings, etc. 

Everything in the upper right quadrant that gives you energy and helps you achieve your goals you should be doing as much as you possibly can. 

The things that help you achieve your goals but do not give you energy (upper left) are the things you need to outsource or compartmentalize and “Eat The Frog” as they say.

The things that do not help you achieve your goals but give you energy (bottom right) are things like travel, hobbies and whatever else. These are usually important to include for mental health and more. 

If you want to get time back in your life and become a more positive motivated person then you should cut out and stop doing almost everything in the bottom left quadrant that does not help you achieve your goals and sucks the energy out of you. 

Unfortunately, this sometimes means you need to cut certain people out of your life who don’t provide a positive impact on your energy level. 

But on the positive side, you create space for people and things that get you the most out of life.

Try out this exercise and let me know what you think.

SALES RESOURCES  

Send me yours

I didn’t come across anything new or very interesting this week so I wanted to use this as an opportunity to see if any of you are using any new tools or tech that I should be looking into.

This DOES NOT mean I’m looking for a sales pitch on anyone’s product. 

I’m looking for FREE tools or resources that reps are using to create their own efficiencies.  

These could be things like free versions of paid tools or ChatGPTs like the 10k Analyzer I shared a few newsletters ago.  

Send me what you’re using and tell me about the impact it’s had on your results. I’ll check it out and highlight you in the next newsletter if you want. 

Thanks! 

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day!  3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?

• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)

• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.