I was talking to James about his role as advertising manager. “There’s a lot of truth in the old saying, ‘Time is of the essence,’” he said. “I’ve read a lot about time management, but I learned more from the ad manager in my first sales job than I’ve learned from books and articles. To be honest, I learned what not to do.”

James explained that his old manager had little regard for time. “He routinely accompanied new sales people on their appointments, at least for their first few weeks on the job. I remember once when we had a morning appointment at a prospective advertiser’s office, which was a thirty minute drive from our office. I was ready to go forty minutes before the appointment, figuring that would allow time to talk strategy on the way, plus get there a little early. The manager said he would be ready ‘in a minute,’ but we ended up leaving just ten minutes before the appointment. He drove like a maniac all the way, and, halfway there, told me to call the prospect’s receptionist on my cell phone to say we were going to be a little late. He was too focused on weaving in and out of traffic to have any kind of pre-meeting strategy. We walked in cold.

“When we sat down with the prospect, I thought the manager would apologize for being late. But he launched right into a sales pitch without a word about our late arrival. Even though I was new in the business, it was no surprise to me that the meeting didn’t result in a sale.

“It was ironic that later that day, we had a staff meeting which the manager had put on the calendar a few days earlier. A couple of people were a few minutes late, and the manager made a sarcastic remark about wasting time waiting for them. Every day was like that. His message was, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’”

James explained that he learned two lessons from his old manager:

1. Being late shows a selfish lack of respect for the other person. “Time is a precious commodity,” James said. “What’s more important in the long run: Taking one more phone call before leaving for an appointment, or showing other people that you value their time?”

2. Time management is about managing other people’s time, as well as your own. “When we were late for that appointment, it threw our prospect’s day out of whack. About halfway through the meeting, our prospect had to step out of the room to tell her next appointment that she was delayed. There’s no telling what kind of domino effect that had on that other person’s schedule. And all that could have been prevented if we had been on time.”

Woody Allen once said, “Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.” James might add a couple of words: “Seventy percent of success in life is showing up on time.”

(c) Copyright 2009 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com