Task

A task is an agreement with three parts: what will be done, who does it and by when. Drop any part and you have a wish. Example (invented numbers): “let’s look at lost deals” becomes a task only as “Maria sends the list of lost deals by Wednesday”. The test is simple: next week anyone can answer yes or no to “was it done?”.

In a small team, tasks live in two places. A task about a deal or a customer goes into the CRM on that deal, with a due date and one responsible person; it then shows up in the seller’s list and in your view of overdue tasks. A task about the team, such as a new script or a pricing question, goes into one shared list.

For example, “Maria will send the list of lost deals by Wednesday.”

Tasks are what your management rhythm produces. Every meeting and every pipeline review ends with a few, and the next one opens by reading them. Each line gets one question, done or not, and if not, a new date and a reason.

The head of sales takes tasks as well as giving them. When you promise the owner a report, or a seller an answer about a discount, that is your task. It goes on the same list, with your name and a date. The team notices fast whether the list applies to everyone.

A task is close to the next step of a deal, and people mix them up. The next step is agreed with the customer and moves the deal. A task is agreed inside the team. A deal whose next step has no task and no date turns up as stuck at the pipeline review.

• Giving a task to “the team” or “sales”. A task with several owners belongs to nobody. Put one name on it, even if others help.
• No date, or “as soon as possible”. Without a date nobody can say whether it is late. Ask the person who takes it to name the date, then write it down.
• Tasks scattered across chats and notes. A task that lives in a message thread is gone by next week. Write it into the CRM or the shared list while the meeting is still on.
• Never checking. A list nobody reads teaches the team that tasks are optional. Open it first at every meeting and ask about each overdue line.

By Friday, the head of sales opens the CRM view of overdue and undated tasks, plus the notes from the last two meetings. Rewrite every open agreement as one line: what, who, by when. Drop the ones nobody will do, and tell the people involved. Keep the list in one shared place and read it first at Monday’s meeting.

A weekly meeting on stuck deals that ends with a decision and an owner for each.