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Productivity Over Activity

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: Like most people who work for a living, I begin my day at the office by reviewing my calendar and making a list of tasks that need to be done on that particular day. Some of these activities have a time associated with them such as a meeting, conference call, or speech I will be making at a certain point in the day. Other activities such as correspondence, accounting, and returning phone calls need to be done that day in general terms but not at any specific point in time.

Productivity Over Activity

Like most people who work for a living, I begin my day at the office by reviewing my calendar and making a list of tasks that need to be done on that particular day. Some of these activities have a time associated with them such as a meeting, conference call, or speech I will be making at a certain point in the day. Other activities such as correspondence, accounting, and returning phone calls need to be done that day in general terms but not at any specific point in time.

I usually try to prioritize my tasks and activities to focus on the most productive ones first, leaving the least productive items for later in the day. Anyone who works in an office realizes that the exercise of keeping a calendar, maintaining a list, and prioritizing tasks is an exercise in the hypothetical. You may be able to control your time and your calendar, but it's hard to control intrusions and interruptions. These unscheduled activities range from a coworker needing advice or help on one of their priorities down to the least valuable, in my mind, which are the myriad of sales calls that come in to everyone's office multiple times a day.

I have written 15 books with multiple millions of copies in print. I regularly speak to tens of thousands of people in arenas and convention centers. In every book and speech, I give my audience or the readers my office phone number: 918-627-1000. I encourage each of them, as I would encourage you, to call me at any point in time you're having trouble applying these messages to your real life.

Suffice it to say that with my office phone number readily available to literally millions of people, I get my share of phone calls. We never know who will be calling or when they will be calling. All of my standard business calls, the calls from readers or those who have attended speeches, and the dreaded sales calls generally go through one very talented young lady named Beth Sharp at our front desk.

I happened to be sitting at Beth's desk one day, autographing a number of books that were being sent out as she fielded several of these calls. She quickly and efficiently deflected the sales calls but alerted me to the readers of my books and those who had attended my speeches who were calling as a result of my ongoing invitation. I realized Beth's ability to instantly do what I call Telephone Triage, separating the productive calls from the time-wasting sales calls, was an extremely valuable skill.

When I asked Beth how she could tell the sales calls from the legitimate calls, she gave me several tips that may help you and the people who handle your phones.

1. If you hear other calls being made in the background by other cold callers in the boiler room, it's a sales call.

2. If the person calling interrupts your greeting but can't pronounce the name of the person they are trying to reach, it's a sales call.

3. If this unfamiliar person can't explain why they're calling or gives some nebulous reason, it's a sales call.

4. If the caller lies by saying they are returning a call or following up on a call from last week that they simply never made, it's a sales call.

If you handle incoming calls or work in an environment where someone screens the calls for you, Beth's tips may help you. If you are a sales person, trying to make a legitimate living calling on businesspeople, you may want to avoid the obvious telltale signs of being a cold calling sales person.

As you go through your day today, separate activity from productivity, and control your phone calls.

Today's the day!

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Article Tags: efficiency, Productivity, sales calls



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