How to increase labor productivity

The first step to increasing labor productivity It consists of identifying everything that generates interruptions. Below I will point out the main source of interruption that a worker can suffer and how to avoid it:

Commercial sellers

Commercial sellers, or more commonly known as "commercial", are those people who try to sell their products to your company. Depending on the position you hold, you may have to deal with them. The first commercial contact can occur in two different ways:

A) By phone

The seller contacts you by phone to schedule an appointment in person. If you are not interested in the product it offers, it is best to be honest and say that you are not interested, (I will deal with this later).

If, on the other hand, you think that the product in question may be interesting for your company then you schedule an appointment.

Experience has shown me that the best time to schedule an appointment is first thing in the morning. In this way you will avoid that both the salesperson and you have unforeseen events throughout the day that cause the meeting to be delayed and therefore waste time.

The only excuse for being late for a scheduled appointment first thing in the morning is to say that we have fallen asleep. Using this excuse denotes a lack of professionalism, therefore you always arrive on time. On the contrary, an appointment at noon can be delayed by a meeting that has taken longer than necessary, traffic issues, etc..

The excuses for appointments that are not early are varied and easy to use. Furthermore, they are not at odds with professionalism ("I've been so busy that it has been impossible for me to get there before"). However, you are not here to assess the professionalism of the seller but to increase your productivity

Remember: if you want to avoid excuses, schedule your appointments first thing in the morning.

B) Through "cold sale"

The cold sale consists of the commercial being presented directly to your company without having scheduled an appointment. Faced with this situation, I am completely intransigent and I call on the salesperson to contact me by phone to schedule the appointment..

Your time cannot be at the disposal of any company that decides to open your door and sell you its products.. It is you who decides how to use your time.

Once you have scheduled the appointment, you must give your direct telephone number to the salesperson and also ask for theirs. In this way, either of the two can be contacted in case there is a delay by the other party. More than once I have been waiting for a salesperson who has not been able to arrive on time for the meeting and because he has not given my phone number he has not been able to notify me.

Two things can happen during the appointment:

• You are interested in the product it offers you. In that case there is no more to talk about. It is probably the beginning of a great business relationship that is beneficial for both parties..

• You are not interested in the product they offer you. This is where you need to be careful. You have to be as clear as possible and say that the product does not interest you.

There are two barriers that prevent us from transmitting this message clearly enough:

Barrier 1 that limits our labor productivity: Need to please. 

Most human beings have an innate tendency to try to please others. This has a very clear biological and adaptive explanation: if our ancestors had dedicated themselves to pissing off every living creature, the human race probably would not have gotten very far.

Unconsciously we perpetuate this trend today and try to make the person in front of us feel good, sell what they sell and without representing a threat to our survival. For this reason, instead of being clear and sincere, we resort to evasions of the type "I have to see it with my superiors ...", "at this moment we have no budget but maybe in a couple of months I can give you an answer ...", "let me study it more carefully and I'll call you ..." and a long etcetera.

Barrier 2 that limits our labor productivity: Excess of empathy.

Empathy is defined as the cognitive ability to perceive in a common context what the other individual may feel. Empathy is basic for human communication, however an excess (as well as a defect) of it, can make us lose perspective on what position we occupy within a commercial negotiation.

That is, if we put ourselves in the place of the commercial and think about the number of negative responses that may be suffered during the performance of their professional activity, we will probably be reluctant to give a new and resounding negative.

We need to overcome these two barriers if we want our refusal to be captured perfectly. The commercial will cling to a burning nail at any hint of interest on our part. Therefore, our answer must be emphatic and leave no room for ambiguity.. The salesperson will appreciate your sincerity and will appreciate you not wasting his time. After all, time is also your most precious asset.