I had an interesting discussion with a friend last week. They reminded me that the biggest problem facing many salespeople and business owners is getting anyone to speak to them. This problem has gotten worse as we add new ways to communicate with each other. There’s so much to do and so much noise in our life that the last thing we want to do is waste our time with some salesperson.
But buyers are not the only “frazzled” ones…sellers are too! Sellers feel like they don’t have any time either. (Jill Konrath wrote a whole book about time management for salespeople!)
There are ways to get your time back. I’ve personally gotten a lot of time back over the last few years. If you’re time-starved try a few of these tips to get started.
1. Pick up a copy of the book the 1Thing. I must admit I’ve turned into a “fanboy” of the 1Thing methodology. After trying several time management approaches and tons of books and courses, this is the one that has stuck for me and made a difference. There a few “killer concepts” in the 1Thing but mostly it’s about focusing on what is important to you and pushing off the rest.
2. Plan your week the week before. There’s a formula for how to plan your week in the 1Thing, a tool called the “411”. Whatever methodology you use, it’s great to hit Monday morning already knowing what you want to achieve that week. Then it’s up to you to prioritize those things. Other stuff will come up—guaranteed–but most of the time you can do your important stuff first.
3. Say “no” to stuff. We get a bunch of requests from colleagues and emails with smart ideas. Some of this seems like stuff we should do (or seems like fun to do), but does it move your key goals forward? Usually not. So, just say “no”.
4. Delegate. I sucked at delegation until two to three years ago. I thought I could not find people as smart as me that could do the job as well as me (what a guy!) Now I’ve figured out how to carve out pieces of what I do and give clear instructions to other people. And the difference is big. There are now so many people in our “flat world” available to help. People offshore do not get paid what US people do, and they would love the work you probably hate (admin type work probably). Spend your time on work at the “hourly rate” you want, not doing admin.
5. Automate: Generative AI is cheaper and more scalable than any offshore team. AI may appear to be “magical”, but in reality you need to invest time to get good at prompt design before you “delegate” your work to the AI (or you can generate a lot of garbage!) If you don’t want to learn how to be good at prompting, get someone to help you. See #4 above!