Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!

Assign Tasks to an Entire Team

If you’re like most Insightly users, you’ve probably at least experimented with tasks. As you may know, tasks can be used in many different ways and linked to a variety of Insightly records (projects, contacts, opportunities, and organizations to name a few). Tasks can also be assigned to other members of your organization, helping you create greater accountability.

But, did you know that tasks can also be assigned to an entire Insightly team? Teams allow you to group your users in logical ways, making it easier to delegate work (or share viewing permissions).

Delegating to a team is fairly straightforward (assuming that your administrator has already enabled the teams feature). Here’s how it works:

1. Open your Insightly task list
2. Create a new task
3. Instead of assigning the task to an individual user, look for the correct team name under “assigned to.”
4. After selecting a team, you’ll notice the next drop down offers two choices: assigning a task for each team member – or – assigning one task for the entire team. Make your selection and save your work.

You might be wondering how the two options in step four differ from one another. It really comes down to whether or not you need each user to have a separate task. (Check out the “sales tip” below for a few example scenarios.)

Scale Your Team With Freelancers

As you leverage technology to improve your delegation workflow, you may realize new capacity for additional projects.

To capitalize on this opportunity, many business owners turn to the freelance economy. In fact, according to a recent study by Upwork Global, Inc., freelancers now represent 35% of the US workforce. Thanks to marketplaces (such as Upwork), it’s never been easier to recruit freelancers.

How can freelancers help your business? Here are a few tips for getting started.

Identify low-risk, high-reward opportunities – Hiring a freelancer may be easier than an employee, but there are certainly still risks. Minimize your exposure to risk by identifying bite-sized, definable projects to outsource. Good examples might be: designing a logo, writing a blog post, or performing a website audit.

Hire several freelancers to a test project – Freelancers are usually virtual (off site) workers. Despite your best due diligence, it’s tricky to pick a winner in a remote setting. Try hiring several candidates to the same project. This way, you’ll create a sense of competition and let the best rise to the top.

Build trust before going too far – Your first inclination might be to give freelancers access to your important systems (such as Insightly). Invest time and build trust before providing too much access. For the first couple projects, just delegate the old-fashioned way (via email or verbally). Once a freelancer proves himself, then it may be appropriate to invite him to your inner circle.

Keep a Journal

Why should you keep a journal?

It’s lonely at the top. As a business owner, few people can relate to the struggles you face each day. Journaling helps you document those issues for future reference. In addition, journaling can be an effective release of your anxiety. By putting your concerns on paper, you may find comfort in knowing an issue is captured (somewhere other than in your brain).

How do you get started? It’s simple. For the next week, make a commitment to spend the last five minutes of each day journaling. One approach is to use a simple notebook and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left, write “Things that Went Well.” On the right, write “Things that Didn’t Go Well.” In your five-minute session, note the day’s date and then list a few things that come to mind. There’s no right or wrong answer.

You don’t have to write a novella. Just scratch down a few of the things on your mind. Give it a try for a week or two and see if it positively impacts your perspective. (You could also follow the same approach for personal matters, too!)

Delegate to Your Sales Team … in One Click

We’ve already discussed how a team delegation tool (such as Insightly) can expedite your delegation workflow. That can only be true, however, if you take the first step.

If you’re using Insightly’s sales management features, you probably already have your reps set up as users in the system. Why not group these users together in one or more “teams”?

For most companies, it probably makes sense to create a team that consists of every sales rep. For companies with geographic or industry-specific sales organizations, adding additional teams may be logical. For vertical organizations, setting up role-specific groups could be useful.

Once enabled, you can then reap the benefits of group delegation. Examples might include:

Delegations to Your Entire Sales Team

• Prepare your slides for the annual company meeting
• Complete this month’s sales training course
• Submit your expense report

Delegations to Your Western Sales Group

• Invite customers to the upcoming trade show in Phoenix
• Prepare a report of your top five growth markets

Delegations to Your Sales Directors

• Finish quarterly performance reviews
• Submit your annual recruitment plan
• Update your team’s competitor intelligence report

Stop wasting time to build duplicate one-off tasks. Instead, harness the power of team delegation today! You’ll save time – and end up with the same result.