5 Productivity Hacks to Boost Your Startup Sales

To close deals quicker and accelerate growth, founders need the right platforms and practices in place. Inspired by a recent Sifted article by Sadia Nowshin (link at the bottom), here are mine...

The theme of my picks is ‘brutal simplicity’.

Simple apps are the best for everyday use because they load instantly, are less laggy, have fewer features, rarely crash and ideally work offline. Unsurprisingly the top three areas of productivity are all heavily powered by AI - ‘Read to me, listen to me, write for me’ - and scheduling functionality.

1. Text-to-Speech (TTS) for Buyer Research

Voice Aloud Reader from Hyperionics Technology is a free and fast Android app that reads web page and PDF content, at speed while I’m doing the washing up. Great when you want to learn more about the buyer’s business and wider market trends, but your hands are full. Speechify is more powerful and crashier but Barack Obama will read you the latest CRM news.

2. Google Docs scratchbook for Sales Thoughts?

I have a words-only Google document titled 'RAW' where I drop thoughts, start lists, and generally use it as a brain dump/sandbox. It's where 99% of stuff starts. I also love MobisleNotes for going to the shops because it’s great at receiving pastes from anywhere, and elicits a very satisfying tick-off feeling. (I have it as an Android APK)

3. Large language model (LLM) for Research and Writing

We’ve built ChatGPT into our customer-facing and backend platforms, and are seeing huge value. Having access to the playground is great (thanks Douglas!) and we’re using a Google Sheet extension titled ‘GPT for Sheets and Docs’ combined with API access, to bring this magic into our spreadsheets.

4. Scheduling support for Posting Content?

We build our social media content by connecting the Revenue Coach backend with ChatGPT, Google Sheets, and our own questionable writing style. When it comes to scheduling posts, we use a combination of Buffer , the delightful Sidebird and native scheduling features provided by LinkedIn and Twitter .

5. Early power hours for Deep Work Focus?

I aspire to schedule zero meetings before 1100, and use those first few fresh hours for big thinking, and strategy/writing/creativity. Shutting the door on potential distractions lets me harness the power of the above hacks and truly focus. Where possible, team meetings, networking and demos happen after lunch.

6. Bonus extras…?

I’m really loving Sifted 's founder-focussed content right now (from the Financial Times ), and 纽约时报 consistently delivers a absolute masterclass in digital mobile news experience. And for fun, Grand Mountain Adventure (Android app) is hands down the absolute best skiing game I've ever played.

What are your Top 5 productivity hacks to sell smarter?

#sales #revenue #coaching #saas #b2b #founder #founders #technology #startups #entrepreneur #growth #automation #ai #artificialintelligence

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That Sifted article: 21 productivity hacks VCs and founders can't live without - Take your to-do list to the next level with these tips and tricks.