Page 64 - Lighting Magazine November 2019

on the mArk
Maximize Downtime
Wait! Before you flip past this page, thinking “Who has downtime? We’re so busy there’s no such thing,” I ask you to reconsider. BY MARK OKUN
62 enLIGHTenment magazine | november 2019
www.enlightenmentmag.com
Every showroom staff has more and dif- ferent types of work to do today; yet, in consumer sales, there is always down- time. How we plan and utilize that time is what will separate the winners and the
losers.
Think about it; there are various periods through-
out every day in a showroom when there is a flurry of activity, and times when there is not. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could predict when those timeframes occur? Since there is no way to know when we will be swamped or empty, having a plan to maximize the use of downtime is essential.
For the purpose of this article, let’s clarify the meaning of “downtime.” I consider “downtime” to be when an individual salesperson is not personally servicing any clients face-to-face in the showroom or on the road. The self-motivated salesperson is focused on the tasks involving the clients in front of
them, which is terrific. However, there are people on the team who require direction and structure. Even a stellar salesperson will benefit from structure and being reminded of the associated daily side duties needed to keep themselves and their showroom top notch.
TIme To Lean?
There is an old phrase my Dad would use when there was downtime in our furniture showroom. In a booming voice, he would say, “If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean!” While cleaning the showroom was a good use of available time in 1974, it is not true in 2019.
Today’s salespeople’s time is too valuable to be spent just maintaining the cleanliness of a show- room. The most important part of their day is waiting on and servicing customers and building
How to