Chris Croft joined me on the Conquer Local podcast to explain why life is actually long and how great time management gives sales leaders their hours back.
Time is not scarce. We just manage it badly. That was the core argument Chris Croft made when he joined the Conquer Local Podcast for a two-part series, and part one was all about how to get your time back.
Chris runs Chris Croft Training and Management. He is one of the most-viewed authors on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning with 36 courses, 24,000 views a day, and 18 million students. When the most popular negotiation teacher in the world also happens to teach time management, pay attention.
Your Five Choices for Getting More Time
Chris opened with a framework that is disarmingly simple. Every time a task shows up at your door, you have five choices. Most of us only ever use one or two.
- Say no
- Negotiate the scope
- Delegate
- Reduce the time you spend on it
- Just do it
The order matters. Most people jump straight to “just do it” and skip the first three options entirely. That is why their calendars are a disaster.
Choice One: Say No
Chris admitted he is terrible at saying no. So am I. It feels mean. It feels like you are leaving money on the table. It feels like the opportunity might have led somewhere.
Here is the math he dropped on me:
“If you say no to just one hour a week of all the things you are offered, that would save you 50 hours a year, which is like a whole extra week a year you could get.”
An hour a week. That is one polite no. The payoff is a full extra working week every year. Over a decade that is ten weeks of pure time back. Saying no is the highest-leverage skill in your calendar.
Choice Two: Negotiate
If you cannot bring yourself to say a full no, negotiate. Chris described it as a partial no:
“I will do your podcast, but I will only do half an hour. Or, I will come and see you but I will not get there till the afternoon. Or, I will do this bit of work, but if you give it to me in spreadsheet format, then I will look at it.”
Another hour a week saved. Another fifty hours a year in the bank. The trick is to see every incoming request as negotiable by default, not as a fixed ask.
Sell and Negotiate Simultaneously
Chris made a point that applies equally to time and to price. Most people sell first and then start negotiating from a weak spot. He recommends doing both at the same time:
- While you are selling the idea of your service, listen for the buyer’s pressure points
- If they have nobody else lined up, that is leverage for you
- If they are in a rush, that is leverage for you
- Use those signals when the numbers conversation finally arrives
This applies to your internal time negotiations too. When your boss asks for something extra, understand the urgency before you say yes to the full scope.
Why Sellers and Leaders Lose Time
The real reason we run out of hours is that we never use choices one through four. We accept every meeting, every request, every “quick favor” at full scope. Then we wonder why the week disappeared. For more on how this plays out in a seller’s life specifically, see my post on how I sell at conferences, which is a whole different kind of time pressure.
What I Am Applying From Chris
A short list I am using in my own week:
- Audit every incoming request against the five choices before I answer
- Say no to one thing a week that does not serve the bigger plan
- Negotiate scope instead of accepting the full ask
- Delegate more aggressively and resist the urge to “just do it”
If you pair this with what I wrote about what makes a great sales team, you start to see how time discipline and team performance are the same conversation.
Life is long. You have more time than you think, once you stop giving it away. Where is your hour a week going to come from?