November 2009
Time is a Finite Resource—Treat it Preciously
TIME MANAGEMENT
T
here is no doubt that time is a business person’s most precious resource. In fact, time is everyone’s most precious resource. We never realize how precious time is until we run out of it. George Burns had 100 years, yet he ne ver had ti me fo r hi s fi nal performance.
On a more serious note, the first step in getting more done is realizing what you need to accomplish. Once you have a clear mission, you will realize that many of the tasks that now occupy your time are actually keeping you from achieving your goals.
We all waste too much of this precious Let’s take a look at an resource. Many years ago when we example of linking your began teaching methods of improving mission to your actions. time management skills, we introduced Think of a customer you the concept of 1435 in order to prove a could not move off the fence for weeks major point. What is 1435? It is the or months. Perhaps they purchased. number of minutes left in the day after Perhaps they did not. Either way, the we waste five minutes. For the average process was a waste of your time. Even person, we waste over one-third of our if there was a sale hanging workday, either in the balance, think in procrastinating or working terms of the opportunity on tasks that will not help “We costs of lost time. Calculate us achieve our long-term create how many hours you spent objectives. on this transaction. The our fate perpetual shopper can The key to getting more done? Developing a sense every day we consume hundreds of hours of your time. The more of urgency with regard to live.” time you spend with the what needs to be customer, the more likely accomplished. A simple ...Henry you will feel obligated to exercise will demonstrate keep going to receive a the different state of mind Miller return upon your that we must achieve. investment. But what a cost! Hundreds of hours to Imagine your last vacation. achieve a paycheck of The serenity of knowing _____? that you didn’t have to check messages or get up at a certain More significantly, how much could time. Perhaps you had no special you have earned had you spent these agenda. After a few days of unwinding, hundreds of hours marketing and work was the furthest from your mind wo r king with mor e pr od uctive (hopefully). customers? In reality, the hours that you are spending with shoppers are actually Now think of the day before you left on preventing you from marketing and that vacation. Do you now have a developing relationships that would be different memory? Was that day a little much more productive. more stressful? We would venture to say that the day before you left was your So what do you do with the shopper? most effective time management day of First, you might accomplish a more the year. That day you accomplished thorough job of assessing their goals more than any other. You quickly and needs up front. Perhaps you are determined priorities and went about encouraging unprofitable achieving those priorities. If you failed, relationships by forcing you would not get out of town on time. action when the potential The day before vacation you had an custo mers are not urgency about what needed to get done. psychologically ready. The key to better time management is to Simple questions regarding develop this sense of urgency every day their goals might give you of your life. How do you do that? a clue to their intentions. Perhaps we should take more vacations! ©2009, All rights reserved The Hershman Group, www.originationpro.com
Ask about their last purchasing experience, how long have they thought about purchasing, have they searched before and not purchased and if so, what has changed at this juncture? Should you fire these people? Of course not. Nurture the relationship by giving them goals to meet before you become actively involved. If they insist upon monopolizing your time without a reasonable chance of return benefits, refer them to someone else who would appreciate such a referral—perhaps a neophyte. Chances are those who are less experienced have much more time on their hands and can use the experience to learn. What better way to learn customer service and negotiation skills than on live customers. Perhaps you may be entitled to a referral fee if they get lucky. We’ve said this over and over, but can’t stress it enough, time is our greatest resource. Every day we waste our time in a variety of ways. If you ask every business person for a self-assessment, almost all of them would reply: I need to manage my time better. Next month we will become more specific by adding pointers that may help you conserve your most precious resource. If we have more time, we can make more money— with less stress! Certainly that is not a bad goal!...
James N. Barnes SWBC Mortgage 9600 Great Hills Trail Suite 145E Austin, Texas 78759 (512) 553-6496 Cell (512) 531-1800 Office 28 Years of Experience!