Why Top Performers Pursue Effectiveness Over Efficiency

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As a high-performance sales professional for years, I was always in search of more and more efficiency.

As I became a sales manager, then entrepreneur and CEO, the stakes grew even higher, so to me, more and more efficiency was the Holy Grail.

While I still seek to be efficient whenever possible, I’ve also learned that given a choice, effectiveness trumps efficiency.

Think about it. Take any of the roles just cited, and have the individual in the position working hyper-efficiently, but toward the wrong priorities. You have a pending disaster. Yet, I regularly see advice dispensed from supposed thought leaders and experts on the value of efficiency, even at the expense of effectiveness. Here’s an example from my own experience to illustrate why today I believe the opposite.

As a professional speaker, I often field inquiries immediately following a presentation regarding my availability to speak at an event in the future. My team’s designed process for these types of situations is to contact my sales team right away with the inquirer’s contact info. Immediately, our sales team will contact the prospect via email, text and phone, thanking the prospect for their interest and moving the inquiry onto the calendar as a firm gig. Immediacy is the key in this world of immediate gratification.

Now, when I pass along this hot lead to the sales team, I am certainly “interrupting” their efficiency, as they were likely busy working on some other lead and had to be stopped in their tracks to pursue something new. Compare this process to the advice calling for peak efficiency, which suggests that our sales team should have auto-responses on their emails and voicemails indicating that they have blocked out times of the day to review emails and voicemails, and the inquirer can expect to be contacted then. Often, by the time the efficient team has returned the inquiry, the effective team has already closed the deal.

As a bonus, the prospect or client often remarks to our sales team about the moment of immediate contact, and how they can imagine the positive sales impact their sales team could have by operating in such a quick fashion. Since we teach sales professionals how to better grow their business, we benefit with increased referrals as well.

In your search for efficiency, identify the prioritization of your activities, and within such prioritization, reassess not just your efficiency but your effectiveness. Efficiency without effectiveness provides zero results.

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Jack Daly is an expert in sales and sales management, inspiring audiences to take action in customer loyalty and personal motivation. He delivers explosive keynote and g...
