Sales Warning: Avoid This Common Sales Killer

A conversation with a friend earlier this week revealed the fact that we share the same common disdain for a certain, yet popular, time management book.

The issue is this: The time management system the book details is so overly complicated that just setting it up and maintaining it takes up way too much time!

Curious, I googled the book title to see what others think of it, and what I found really concerned me – I certainly hope YOU are not one of these people!

Here’s what most who also hated the book wrote:

“I didn’t like this time management system. I also tried System X and System Y and finally settled on System Z – that one is great!”

WHOA!!! This is total insanity – people are not only wasting endless hours by using overly complicated time management systems that do nothing but WASTE time, on top of that they’re going through system after system…

And they’re wondering why they can’t seem to get anything done!

The obsession with time management systems reminds me a lot of the “lead sorting” ritual I used to see happening in sales offices in the 1990s (this was when leads were on cards, before laptops and CRM became the norm).

Other reps I worked with would arrive in the morning, make a cup of coffee, and then proceed to waste a full hour or more “sorting” their leads – they’d keep going through the pile of cards, separating them out into categories of who they’d call first, and so on.

Huh?

Yep, they “sorted” their leads all morning, instead of just getting to it and contacting people!

Of course now everything is digital and CRM-based but I’m sure the same nonsense continues today, just virtually.

Messing around with endless time management systems and lead-sorting are both symptoms of the same malady: PROCRASTINATION!

“You may be shocked if you keep accurate account of the TIME you waste in a single day.” -Napoleon Hill

I’ve looked at time management systems in the past myself, and I decided on a very simple one: When I come into my office, I grab a blank sheet of paper and a Sharpie, I make a list of things to do that day, and I go down the list and cross each off as I complete it.

I don’t sort things by priority or do anything else other than simply get to work; however, I have made a habit of doing the most unpleasant tasks first. Then the rest of my day is a lot easier and I can focus on fun activities like writing and selling.

My recommendation to you is to give up the “time management” addiction and simply get to work each day. Make a list – keep it SIMPLE like I do – whether that list is on paper, on a whiteboard, or in a blank text document on your laptop. You’ll not only find your life getting easier and your checks getting bigger, but you’ll find yourself working fewer hours and going home earlier every day, probably the best benefit of all!

To your success,

Frank Rumbauskas

PS: If you don’t indulge in “lead sorting” but for all the wrong reasons – because you simply don’t have any leads to call – the easy remedy to that situation can be found here:

https://www.nevercoldcall.com/ordernow.php