Cold Calling

Ten Things You Must Do To Have A Successful Power Hour

Xant Team

Read on and learn how you can finish strong as you inch your way through the finish line with the Power Hour.

RELATED: The 9 Best Sales Prospecting Tips And Techniques You Can Do Now

In this article:

  1. What Is A Power Hour?
  2. How to Do Power Hour
    1. Put It On the Calendar
    2. Make Sure It’s the Right Time
    3. Management Must Participate
    4. Have the List Ready
    5. Huddle Before the Power Hour
    6. Have Fun
    7. Set up a Scoreboard
    8. Make It a Competition
    9. Huddle After the Power Hour
    10. Use Technology

Boost Sales At The Last Minute With A Successful Power Hour

What Is A Power Hour?

So, we’ve all been there.

You’re nearing the end of the quarter, and you need to quickly round up more sales opportunities for your account executive team. I’m naturally no fan of the end of the quarter mad rush, but sometimes you just need to build pipeline fast.

One of the activities you can do with the sales team is to organize a Power Hour. However, let’s first clarify what a power hour actually is.

By Power Hour, I don’t mean the drinking game.

A Power Hour is one hour in which all of the sales floors are entirely focused on cold calling your best prospects.

To motivate the team, you can introduce an award, and the sales reps who accumulate the most set appointments at the end of the hour wins. Doing so will help improve sales productivity.

Organizing a Power Hour is a great opportunity that will help your team close more appointments. They’ll receive a boost in motivation and from the excitement of the competition.

How to Do A Power Hour

To be able to do a power hour with your sales team, you don’t need much.

All you need is to devote a chunk of time to this activity. An hour, in particular.

The regularity of the power hour will depend on your organization. You can do it once a week, once a month, or even daily.

Here are the ten things to keep in mind for a successful Power Hour:

1. Put It On the Calendar

businessman pointing on a calendar | Ten Things You Must Do To Have A Successful Power Hour | power hour | how to make a power hour
Scheduling power hours to plan for success

Power Hour has to be on everybody’s calendar, and everybody needs to know they need to show up. Participation is not optional.

Having everybody working towards the same goal will make each one feel like they have the support of the team behind their back. At the same time, it encourages competition, which will make your team strive harder.

2. Make Sure It’s the Right Time

There are times during the day when you have a better chance of contacting prospects, and there are times you have a worse time of contacting prospects. Schedule Power Hours during your best times to make productive and motivating calls.

Depending on the industry you’re targeting, the “right time” might vary. Be sure to keep this in consideration when you’re planning Power Hour.

3. Management Must Participate

Sales managers need to participate. You can’t be one of those leaders who ‘tells’ and doesn’t ‘sell.’

Get your butt on the phone. I send the invite, and I participate in each Power Hour.

4. Have the List Ready

Before you get started, you must have the to-do list or the to-call list sorted out before the hour begins.

The first few times, I showed up to our Power Hour, and nobody knew what list they were calling. This led to chaos and disappointing results.

By preparing and keeping things organized, you’ll avoid mishaps that could cause delays and slow things down, which invalidates the purpose of the Power Hour.

5. Huddle Before the Power Hour

team huddle having harmony | Ten Things You Must Do to Have a Successful Power Hour | power hour | how to make a power hour
Using team huddles for a motivated power hour

Another thing you need to do with the team is to huddle before the Power Hour begins. It should only last two minutes.

You can start with a joke to keep it light. Afterward, you can remind people what list they should focus on to maximize productivity and the chances of success.

Lastly, mention your scoreboard, then ask each person to come up with a goal.

Doing this can keep the members on track and get them pumped.

RELATED: 4 Sales Prospecting Tips To Surge Ahead With Power Hours

6. Have Fun

Sales reps tend to think that Power Hour is not really fun, but it can be. I stand up during my calls, or I tell people what happened after I had a conversation.

It makes the time pass much quicker.

By making it a fun activity, people will want to participate more. At the same time, they will stay motivated for a longer time.

7. Set up a Scoreboard

If you’re going to organize a Power Hour, then you need to see how you compare with everybody around you. Having a scoreboard is a must.

It’s better if the scoreboard is made by the reps, so they have ownership.

8. Make It a Competition

Turning it into a contest and awarding the winner with some sort of incentive is a great idea to get people hyped up.

Right now, we give a $25 gift card to every person who gets an appointment (and yes, we take the card back if the appointment doesn’t hold!). There are a lot of ideas for motivational games and prizes you can do here, so have fun with it.

If you can, you should consider asking your team what they want the most. What better way to motivate them than by getting exactly what they wanted as a reward?

9. Huddle After the Power Hour

Once the hour’s over, take another two minutes and huddle with the team. Let each person mention their goal and if they hit it or not.

Discuss funny stories or successes and get feedback on what could be done better next time.

Following the events that took place, it’s time to find out how you can improve yourself. To be able to continue to optimize and progress, one must always listen to feedback.

This is the primary reason why you should always huddle with the group afterward.

10. Use Technology

female agent wearing headset and using her laptop | Ten Things You Must Do To Have A Successful Power Hour | power hour | power hour funny
Using technology to assist in sales

Ten dials are not enough for each person during Power Hour. To have a successful Power Hour, you should be shooting for at least 30 calls per person, depending on the number of conversations.

Therefore, the best way to increase the activity level is to use XANT’s playbooks. This is cutting edge AI technology that shows you who to call and when to call.

It can also show you what to say for the highest likelihood of success.

After all, this is the age of AI selling, and Power Hour can really be easier, thanks to smart technology!

A successful Power Hour can help your team meet and even exceed your sales goals. Just remember these ten tips to help you make the most of this initiative.

If you’re looking to get this 10-point cheat sheet on the Power Hour in a .pdf format, you can download it below!

Will you be using these tips in your own strategy? Share your insights in the comments section below!

Up Next:

Ten Things You Must Do To Have A Successful Power Hour https://resources.insidesales.com/blog/sales-development/successful-power-hour/

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on October 19, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.