How much do you value your time? Lets say that a salesperson attends a meeting with a potential client. The meeting lasts for 3 hours and the client seems like they are almost at tipping point. In order to ‘WOW’ the client and potentially secure the sale, an extra 2 hours of work is required. What would you do in this situation? How would you prioritize your time?

Option A – 3 hours invested, 2 more wasted.

Decide that you’ve already invested 3 hours of your valuable time into this sale, and choose not to ‘waste’ any more time on this sale. Instead, you opt to ‘better utilize your time’ in other areas such as sourcing a new client.

Option B – 3 hours wasted unless 2 more are invested.

Decide that you have already invested 3 hours of your time into this sale and follow through with the extra work to increase your chances of success. You believe that those three hours of work will be wasted if you don’t allocate the extra time to secure the sale.

Many people often blame others for ‘wasting my time’. The truth is, we waste more of our own time, than any other person can ever be responsible for.

When we understand and respect this, we can work to make ourselves more productive and more efficient which will ultimately lead to better customer service and greater success in business.

Tip: Spend some time identifying the activities and tasks that are going to win you business. Then prioritise your time around these activities.