Productive Routines

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons

I have spent many years coaching successful salespeople. What I have found is that the best among them aren’t necessarily the smartest, the ones with the greatest raw talent, or even those that work the most hours. The salespeople with the most productive routines have proved to be the most successful.

Assume you are an outside salesperson expected to have five client meetings per day. The gifted sales person may convince three of the five to do business. The workaholic may work longer hours, see seven people, and convince three to do business. The one with the most productive routines has created a habit of making ten strategic phone calls a day to people that she decides have the highest probability of doing business. She does this as she is driving from meeting to meeting. She has contact with 15 people instead of the five or seven of the other salespeople. She convinces two, to do business from her normal meetings, picks up another two through her efforts on the phone, and ultimately drives more business than the other two salespeople.

In business, regardless of your role, you need to find your advantage. What can you do to propel yourself beyond your competitors? Is there an activity you can perform each day that will make you more productive and provide the benefit you need to gain that edge?

Create one or two productive routines in your life and start implementing them today. Do it until it becomes so routine that you don’t even need to think about it. Let me know how it works for you.