Last week I had a million things on my task list before leaving for a three-day trip. One of the things that wasn’t urgent was to record a Sprint – a six to eight minute webinar that we offer in our Vector Firm Sales Academy. I could’ve easily delayed it until the following week, and no one would’ve noticed. After all, I was busy, so why not delay it? I didn’t have time that day to complete and record the Sprint, and get everything else done. I was very tempted to skip it.
However, I didn’t skip it. I completed it. I didn’t find a super idea of efficiency. Some things on my list simply didn’t get done that day. More than one of those things were urgent, but I chose to do the non-urgent task instead. Why? Because it was important. Because it was client-facing. Because it was something that moves the needle in the satisfaction of our members and consequently, moves the needle of my business.
If I could change one thing about salespeople, it would be to change the activities they choose to complete on a daily basis. Salespeople are perpetually in firefighting mode, fearing that if they don’t complete all urgent tasks immediately, they will die. The important things don’t get done because the fires must be extinguished. Prospecting, client nurturing, and professional development are things that salespeople don’t do today. Why? Because those activities are never urgent… and they never get done.
Peter Drucker once said: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not have been done at all.” If salespeople intentionally chose their activities and had the courage to say no to meaningless tasks and disappoint some people, then they would make a larger impact on their key accounts and prospective new clients. They would be moving the needle for their businesses.
This is hard, but nothing that’s worthwhile is easy. It’s also simple – only do the activities that are important to you and your business. After exercising this discipline for 90 or so days, the ball of momentum will be rolling in the right direction and all of your activity will be meaningful.
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