I’ve been a sales professional and surrounded by other sales professionals for over 20 years. I’ve found a few common traits that are common among all sales people, regardless of industry, culture, or seniority:
- We’re primarily in reactive mode – always responding to customer or prospect requests rather than pushing forward proactively with the initiatives that will make us better.
- We’re always getting beat up – our prospects, our boss, our competition – most of our conversations are negative.
Most of us intend to have proactive and positive days, but then we all do this one thing when we arrive at the office (or sooner for many of us), and we need to stop it…
Idea Tuesday: Stop checking your email first thing in the morning. In fact, wait an hour before doing so.
“What? Are you crazy? I’ve got to check and see who needs me. What if Jennifer got back to me?” No, I’m not crazy. My logic is simple:
Think about the two common traits I mentioned above: reactive mode and negativity. Think about what’s in your email right now: junk mail, complaints, requests, etc. Even if there are a few complimentary emails, they’d be overshadowed by the others. Regardless of your plans today, you’d shift to an anxious, reactionary mode and begin to respond to your emails. All of a sudden it’s lunch time, you’re worn out from the negative emails, and you’re a half day behind on your proactive plan.
If you spend your first hour on more strategic and proactive items, you’ll make a shift into a mode of production. After an hour of this type of positive activity, the negative emails will seem less invasive, the requests will be in the proper perspective, and you’ll use email for what it is: a communications tool, not a master task list.
I’ve been in my office for about 50 minutes this morning and haven’t checked my email. I reviewed a presentation that I’m giving later today and wrote this post. I’ll write one more post and then open my inbox. This habit was almost impossible the first few weeks, but it’s a natural routine now. An unexpected benefit of this behavior is the power I’ve developed over all my thoughts and actions – I have more discipline to choose the right action rather than fall into routine or take the easy route. This isn’t restricted to work – I mean eating too much dessert, getting out of bed instead taking those extra 15 minutes, etc.
Try it for three weeks. You’ve got to plan something for that hour or you will be back to perusing your inbox, but the benefits will pay off soon and you’ll not only get more done in the morning, but your entire day will be more enjoyable.
