A colleague called me the other day for some advice on productivity. He was going to be doing some training for a client who wanted a short segment on time management.
I asked him to tell me about their problem.
He told me his client has a team of sales professionals who are frustrated with having to do a lot of paper work, but it has to get done. They want to know how they can be better or more productive at the paper work.
I asked him how much money they make while filling out the paper work. He said, “Nothing. But it’s part of the process and has to be done.”
“Can/will the company hire a person to fill out the paper work for them?”
“No.”
“I’m imagining that the sales professionals are on commission and earn their money when they’re sitting in front of prospects, toe-to-toe, giving presentations. Am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then the best use of their time that would make the company and themselves the most amount of money in the least amount of time would be to spend as much of their time giving presentations (or making appointments to give presentations) and have someone else fill out paper work. Is this correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then, even if the company won’t hire someone to help with the necessary ‘non-income generating’ administrative work, and because the sales professionals make money on a commission (percentage of sales), why not have 2 or 3 sales people hire and train one full-time employee on their own to help with their paper work?”
There was a short pause and then I heard the “ah ha” moment over the phone. He said that would be very entrepreneurial of the sales people, like a sub-venture within the company. And once the company sees the benefit of doing this, they may incorporate the strategy and pay for the employee(s) throughout the company so that everybody wins.
Just because a company or someone says it/they won’t or can’t help you, don’t buy into their limitations. Think different. Know your outcome/intention and keep asking, “How CAN this work so everyone can win?”