When I returned from the airport on March 12th, I entered my home office to find a mess. Jackets laying on chairs, paper and phone chargers scattered over my desk, and a general disarray. I hadn’t returned from a trip. I returned from the airport after boarding a flight to Chicago and deboarding at the last minute before the door was shut. My meeting had been cancelled. The night before, the NBA suspended its season. I knew this office was going to be my home for a while.
To be clear, I’m not one of those messy-office guys. I keep my office organized so I can be effective. However, the first three or four months of the year include twice as many travel days as the rest of the year combined. Sales kick-off meetings, project kick-off meetings, ISC West, PSA TEC, two ski trips, one spring break trip, two destination board meetings, and four father-daughter camping trips occupy my calendar through the end of April. I love this time of year. Its hectic, but it’s a lot of fun and I’ve learned how to work it into my routine (that’s another post). And every single year, my office becomes a disaster until the beginning of May.
As I sat down and pondered the world’s situation that afternoon, I looked at the disaster in front of me and thought: “Well, I’ll have plenty of time to clean this office.” I’m typing this post on Friday, April 3rd, 22 days later. You see the picture of me above. My office is still a mess … and I’m proud.
The next day, I had our live Vector Firm Sales Academy webinar session for March. Although I had planned to deliver this session from Chicago, it was kind of nice to be in my home office. I was able to focus 100% on the delivery and the attendees, who were as uncertain about our situation as I was. Monday brought 1,000 ideas on how we can help our clients, Academy members, and our industry – this day brought my first post of the series “Ten things salespeople can do during this crazy time”. Since then, I’ve been pushing it hard. Jamie and I have been serving our clients in the daytime and creating extra content in the after-hours. I’m exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Because of this schedule, I haven’t gotten around to cleaning my office.
There is nothing most of us can do to change our scenario right now besides follow our communities’ guidelines, but there is an endless list of things salespeople can do right now to help their clients and position themselves well as we come out of this crisis. Are you spending your time color-coding your sock drawer, or are you calling every single customer to inquire how you can help them? Are you spell-checking your CRM system, or are you delivering unsolicited ideas that will help your clients? Are you binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm during the day, or are you investing in professional development?
By the way, I’ve committed to cleaning my office by the time you read this next week – but I’m doing it this weekend, not during peak selling hours!
