Hey, everybody, Charlie, Hauck with another Fast Tip Friday. You know the drill! If not, go and watch/read a bunch more of them and you'll get the rest of the answers about who I am and why I'm here. Today's topic, activity and progress are not the same. As I think of the year I've had, it's been a good year here at Growth Dynamics, and buy and large, all my clients have had good years.
There is something that I think is really important to remind everybody as we close up the year 2023. The door for 2024 is open, we're ready to run into it. It’s time to refocus on this simple idea that being really active is not the same as being really productive. I want everyone to think about what you're doing with your time and how you're turning it into the results that you need to have and the success that you want to experience.
I may get a lot of hate, but the words sales calls are not necessarily highly productive. Making a lot of sales calls with people that aren't decision makers is a waste of your time and it's hiding from the work that you need to do to really be productive. Having the right conversations with the right people, that's how you become productive. Having lots of conversations with a lot of people that might one day be decision makers but aren't decision makers today won't pay you today, so don't get stuck in that. “But they know me, they like me, they trust me.” Do the hard stuff, go to the head of the organization, sell business success, not product knowledge, and do the right activity with the right people to produce the right results.
I read Monday morning Manager reports from people that talk about all these lunch and learns that they've done, or all the meetings they've had with the purchasing agents and wholesalers, or all the conversations they've had with people on job sites. But there's a whole bunch of them that don't really schedule the time to talk to the people with the ultimate decision to say yes or no, “I'll buy your product, I'll put it in my showroom, I'll put it on my trucks or I'll use it.”
You’ve got to be productive talking to the people that can give you the success and the business opportunities that will take you where you want to go. So running around the house a lot of times isn't a great journey. Running to the right place at the right time for the right reasons - That creates productivity. Don't mistake a busy calendar with a productive calendar. Know how to filter out the right things, know what are the right things to focus on and commit to and don't fool yourself with “I'm really busy”, but you're really not productive. It's a slow road to nowhere. Make sure you're not on that road. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend. Enjoy the rest of the year. Take care.