Having a good grasp on the comings and goings of your inbox is essential if you want to be a productive sales rep. We have so much great technology at our fingertips yet most of us are not utilising its full potential to make our lives better. But as they say, when you know better, you do better.<\/p>\n
Here are five easy things you can do in your Gmail inbox today to make you a more organised (and relaxed) sales rep:<\/p>\n
It is not uncommon to open your inbox and immediately feel overwhelmed by the number of unread emails glaring at you. You can remedy this by using Gmail\u2019s built-in automatic filtering system. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n
1)<\/strong> \u00a0At the top of your signed-in Gmail account page you will see a search box. In this search box type in a specific keyword or email address (but don\u2019t hit enter or click the search icon yet). A folder will appear in the sidebar where all of the emails matching your filter will now automatically be sent to.<\/p>\n Yes, you can actually cancel an email once you\u2019ve click \u201cSend\u201d. The \u201cUndo send\u201d feature is very helpful in cases where you\u2019ve forgotten to include a piece of information or accidentally attached the wrong document. Here\u2019s how to activate it:<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> \u00a0Click on the gear icon at the top right of your Gmail account page and then click on \u201cSettings\u201d. Shortcuts are extremely useful when you have a lot of emails to sift through. You can simply press \u201cShift+?\u201d on your keyboard while in Gmail to bring up a list of all the shortcuts.<\/p>\n Remember you will have to activate the shortcuts feature before you can start using them. Click on the gear icon at the top right of your Gmail account page. Go to \u201cSettings\u201d and look for \u201cKeyboard shortcuts\u201d. Now select \u201cKeyboard shortcuts on\u201d, and then \u201cSave Changes\u201d before you exit.<\/p>\n Gmail Labs are the place where experimental features are tested out. Sometimes popular features, like \u201cUndo Send\u201d (mentioned above) become permanent fixtures while others fade away.<\/p>\n To access these features, go to \u201cSettings\u201d in Gmail and then select \u201cLabs\u201d from the top row. There you can either search for a specific Lab or choose one from the list provided. Here are four Labs you might be interested in trying out:<\/p>\n *<\/strong> \u00a0Canned Responses \u2013 you can now save a list of your most frequently repeated phrases or messages and then have them automatically added to a message for extreme efficiency. If enabled you can access the responses from the bottom grey arrow next to the recycle bin icon. Gmail provides 15GB of space. For some this is more than enough but for others, especially sales professionals, this space gets used up very quickly. Here’s how to eliminate emails that clogs up your account:<\/p>\n *<\/strong> \u00a0Type in \u201clarger:5MB\u201d or whichever size you want to look for in the Gmail search box. By knowing which emails are very large you can find ways of removing their content elsewhere so they take up less space. You can also look for emails smaller than a certain size by typing in \u201csmaller:\u201d and the size (as above).
\n2)<\/strong> \u00a0Click on the grey arrow in the search box which should be to the right of the word or email address you\u2019ve just typed in.
\n3)<\/strong> \u00a0A drop-down menu with various options will be revealed which allows you to refine your filter. You can, for example, specify whether the email should have an attachment to be included, the size of the email, the subject line and so forth.
\n4)<\/strong> \u00a0Click on \u201cCreate filter with this search\u201d.
\n5)<\/strong> \u00a0Now you can decide what you want this filter to do. Select the \u201cSkip the Inbox (Archive it)\u201d option.
\n6)<\/strong> \u00a0Select \u201cApply the label:\u201d and click on the \u201cChoose label\u201d drop-down menu next to it. You can now either create a new label or select an existing label from the list.
\n7)<\/strong> \u00a0If you want to include old emails that match the filter specifications you\u2019ve set up, select \u201cAlso apply filter to …\u201d at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
\n8)<\/strong> \u00a0You are not limited to only choosing the above options but select what suits your needs. Just remember to not choose \u201cMark as read\u201d because that might lead to you missing out on important emails.
\n9)<\/strong> \u00a0Now click on the \u201cCreate filter\u201d button.<\/p>\nEnable \u201cUndo send\u201d feature<\/h2>\n
\n2)<\/strong> \u00a0Scroll down and you should see an \u201cUndo Send\u201d option. Select the \u201cEnable Undo Send\u201d and choose how long you would like the cancellation period to be (5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds).
\n3)<\/strong> \u00a0Click \u201cSave Changes\u201d to ensure that your selection has been activated.<\/p>\nGet acquainted with shortcuts<\/h2>\n
Make use of Gmail Labs<\/h2>\n
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0Preview Pane \u2013 an additional pane that appears either next to or above your list of emails (similar to what you\u2019ll see in Outlook) shows you a preview of what\u2019s in the email you select. When you enable this feature a new button will appear next to the gear icon at the top where you can toggle the feature on and off, as well as select whether you prefer a horizontal or vertical view.
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0Auto-advance \u2013 this feature automatically opens up the next oldest email in your inbox after you\u2019ve completed an action (like deleting a message) instead of returning to the main inbox.
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0Google Calendar gadget \u2013 this is a widget that shows all of your current and upcoming events from your Google Calendar in a small box in the left column.<\/p>\nGet more space<\/h2>\n
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0Set new emails to \u201cPlain Text Mode\u201d before sending them. Gmail will remember this for future emails unless you decide to change it back. HTML might not take up a lot of space overall but if you get hundreds of emails a day, that little bit can help a lot.
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0You can also use a site like findbigmail.com which automatically scans your inbox for emails of a certain size. This is similar to the \u201clarger:\u201d search (see first bullet point) but you can be more specific about what you\u2019re looking for.
\n*<\/strong> \u00a0Erase old emails that have no relevance anymore and don\u2019t contain any vital information. Type in \u201colder_than:2y\u201d or however far back in time you want to delete old emails.<\/p>\n