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

never had t ime for his final

performance.

We all waste too much of this precious

resource. Many years ago when we

began teaching methods of improving

time management skills, we introduced

the concept of 1435 in order to prove a

major point. What is 1435? It is the

number of minutes left in the day after

we waste five minutes. For the average

person, we waste over one-third of our

w o r k d a y , e i t h e r

procrastinating or working

on tasks that will not help

us achieve our long-term

objectives.

The key to getting more

done? Developing a sense

of urgency with regard to

wha t needs to be

accomplished. A simple

exercise will demonstrate

the different state of mind

that we must achieve.

Imagine your last vacation.

The serenity of knowing

that you didn’t have to

check messages or get up at a certain

time. Perhaps you had no special

agenda. After a few days of unwinding,

work was the furthest from your mind

(hopefully).

Now think of the day before you left on

that vacation. Do you now have a

different memory? Was that day a little

more stressful? We would venture to

say that the day before you left was your

most effective time management day of

the year. That day you accomplished

more than any other. You quickly

determined priorities and went about

achieving those priorities. If you failed,

you would not get out of town on time.

The day before vacation you had an

urgency about what needed to get done.

The key to better time management is to

develop this sense of urgency every day

of your life. How do you do that?

Perhaps we should take more vacations!

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.

Let’s take a look at an

example of linking your

mission to your actions.

Think of a customer you

could not move off the fence for weeks

or months. Perhaps they purchased.

Perhaps they did not. Either way, the

process was a waste of your time. Even

if there was a sale hanging

in the balance, think in

terms of the opportunity

costs of lost time. Calculate

how many hours you spent

on this transaction. The

perpetual shopper can

consume hundreds of hours

of your time. The more

time you spend with the

customer, the more likely

you will feel obligated to

keep going to receive a

r e t u r n u p o n y o u r

investment. But what a

cost! Hundreds of hours to

achieve a paycheck of

_____?

More significantly, how much could

you have earned had you spent these

hundreds of hours marketing and

working with more productive

customers? In reality, the hours that you

are spending with shoppers are actually

preventing you from marketing and

developing relationships that would be

much more productive.

So what do you do with the shopper?

First, you might accomplish a more

thorough job of assessing their goals

and needs up front. Perhaps you are

encouraging unprofitable

relationships by forcing

action when the potential

c u s t ome r s a r e no t

psychologically ready.

Simple questions regarding

their goals might give you

a clue to their intentions.

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! ©2009, All rights reserved The Hershman Group, www.originationpro.com

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