What do you do if you're struggling to manage your time while learning new skills in Sales Operations?

Prioritizing tasks is crucial, especially when juggling various responsibilities. Begin by assessing which sales operations skills are most crucial for enhancing performance, such as CRM utilization, sales analytics comprehension, or lead generation mastery. Once you've identified these key areas, organize your schedule to focus on mastering them first, ensuring that high-priority learning objectives receive the necessary attention and effort.

Prioritizing tasks is essential for effectively managing time while balancing work responsibilities and learning new sales operations skills. Begin by identifying high-impact tasks aligned with learning objectives and allocate dedicated time slots for skill development. Utilize time management techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix to differentiate between urgent and important tasks, ensuring that crucial learning activities are given precedence amidst daily responsibilities. This structured approach optimizes productivity and facilitates continual growth in sales operations proficiency.

Setting realistic and achievable goals is paramount for effective time management in Sales Operations. Break down complex skills into smaller, manageable segments that can be learned step by step. For instance, when mastering a new sales tracking tool, start with its basic functions before progressing to advanced features. This approach ensures steady progress and prevents becoming overwhelmed by the volume of new information, maintaining motivation along the way.

Setting realistic goals is fundamental for effectively managing time while juggling work commitments and acquiring new sales operations skills. Begin by assessing your current skill level and identifying specific areas for improvement. Break down larger learning objectives into manageable tasks with achievable deadlines, ensuring they align with your work schedule. By setting realistic goals, you can prioritize learning activities effectively, maintain motivation, and make steady progress towards enhancing your sales operations proficiency without overwhelming yourself.

Retention and understanding can be the hardest part of learning new skills. Many of us have had the experience of reading an article or watching a video and forgetting it immediately afterwards. I find that meaningful retention and understanding starts with focus during the learning event. Time blocking, minimizing distractions, and learning in an uninterrupted setting can keep you focused on learning. For me, other learning techniques are useless unless I can actually focus. My tips for successful time blocking include: silencing notifications on your devices, minimizing visual distractions in the room (like TVs), and if you listen to music - listening to music without lyrics. I am also a fan of the Pomodoro technique during sessions.

Utilizing time blocks can be a powerful technique in managing your schedule effectively. Dedicate specific blocks of time each day or week exclusively for learning new Sales Operations skills. During these periods, eliminate distractions and focus solely on the task at hand. Whether it's an hour a day or several hours a week, consistent and uninterrupted learning time will help you absorb new concepts more effectively and apply them in your sales processes.

Absolutely, leveraging available resources is paramount for mastering Sales Operations. By exploring diverse options such as online courses, tutorials, webinars, and industry reports, individuals can gain structured learning paths and practical insights. It's essential to allocate dedicated time blocks for utilizing these resources and to revisit complex topics as needed until a solid understanding is achieved. This proactive approach ensures continuous growth and proficiency in Sales Operations.

Seeking regular feedback is crucial for skill development in Sales Operations. Engage with peers, mentors, or supervisors who can offer constructive criticism and guidance on your learning journey. Their insights can provide valuable perspective on relevant skills and areas for improvement, accelerating your learning trajectory and ensuring alignment with your career objectives.

Staying adaptable is essential in Sales Operations. As the field evolves, be ready to adjust your learning plan to align with changing trends and job demands. Incorporate new skills or tools as they become relevant, ensuring your skill set remains current and valuable in the dynamic sales landscape.

Forced ranking has helped me quite significantly. Working in Sales Ops you'll find that more often than not you end-up with an overwhelmingly high number of list items that you want (or asked) to deliver by EoM, or EoQ, and in many cases clear business benefit is not obvious for all. As such, I've found that ranking items against each other with business performance being the overarching goal, has helped tremendously in prioritizing work.

Prioritizing time for self improvement and development is important. As little as setting 15 minutes aside each day to read a new article, or research something can pay dividends. If it’s important, then finding the time will not be difficult. I have found that a few podcasts are great ways to get information in the revenue operations and sales ops space. Additionally, seeking a certification in revenue operations is highly advised. HubSpot has a great free revenue operations certification course that I found to be very valuable.