Just Say No

Just say no.

Say no to anything that doesn't move your business forward.

In my role, only two things really matter: getting a customer and keeping a customer. That's how the business grows.

Everything Else Can Wait

If a task isn't part of winning a customer or keeping one, it gets pushed to off hours — or handed to someone else. That's not about protecting my calendar. It's about protecting the two things that actually move the needle.

A Lesson From Selling Print

I learned this early, selling print. Production schedules and delivery details pulled at my time constantly — real things, things that kept customers happy. But they weren't my job. My job was bringing customers in the door and keeping the relationships I already had. Every hour I spent chasing delivery instead of those two things was an hour I wasn't growing the business.

True success in sales isn't about doing more. It's about staying focused on what matters, and more often than not, that focus is exactly how we get customers and how we keep them.

Stay focused on what matters, and say no to everything else.

Roy Waterhouse is the founder of Lean Sales Group, where he coaches salespeople on building trust and growing accounts.