We Want Proactivity, But Who's Got Time?

Ask almost any sales team what they need to do more of and you’ll hear:

“Be more proactive.”

Prospect more.

Reach out to customers before they call us.

Look for opportunities.

Plan ahead.

Develop accounts.

Everyone agrees.

Then Monday morning arrives.

A customer has a problem.

There are 37 emails waiting.

Someone needs a quote.

An order is late.

The phone rings.

And suddenly it’s 4:30.

We didn’t decide not to be proactive.

Reactive work simply won.

That’s the problem with proactive work.

It rarely screams at you.

The angry customer screams.

The unanswered email screams.

The late order screams.

Calling a customer you haven’t spoken to in three months doesn’t.

So it gets pushed to tomorrow.

Then tomorrow becomes next week.

If you want people to be more proactive, telling them to “be more proactive” probably isn’t going to work.

You have to create space for the behavior.

Put it on the calendar.

Protect the time.

Decide beforehand what you’re going to do.

Maybe Tuesday from 9:00 to 9:30 is prospecting.

Maybe every morning starts with three proactive customer calls before opening email.

Maybe Friday afternoon is account planning.

The exact system matters less than making proactive work visible and specific.

Because you will never run out of reactive work.

There will always be another email.

Another problem.

Another request.

If proactive work only happens when you have time left over, it probably won’t happen.

Don’t find time for it.

Make time for it.