Stop Thinking Pennies, Start Thinking Dollars

Save your pennies and watch them grow into dollars. This thinking or belief is held by many, but in today’s world it may be keeping you from your goal to increase sales.

On the corners of many intersections are gas stations each advertising their per gallon price. Within blocks to a couple of miles there may be differences as much as one to five pennies. You can see people driving just one block to save one penny.

Let’s put this into perspective. If a vehicle with a 15 gallon tank averages 25 miles per gallon and the driver travels 12,000 miles per year, the annual savings of one penny per gallon amounts to $4.80. Even if the savings is 5 pennies per gallon, the savings is still fairly small – $24.00.

Now look at the time to save $4.80 to even $24.80. Probably there is an additional amount of time to drive to the gas station. With many people having the penny mentality that is now a repetitive behavior (habit), time to fill up is potentially extended because the filling station is busy. So for the sake of this discussion, let us use the figure of 10 additional minutes even though I believe it is probably more.

If your time is valued at $50 per hour because you want to have $100,000 annual sales income, then how much have you saved by saving pennies and wasting dollars in misdirected time? Ten minutes of your time is $8.33. Now presuming you fill your tank up every time, then you have made at least 40 trips to the gas station or invested 400 additional minutes. Your time at that busy gas station has just cost you $333 all with the goal to save under $30.

This is why you must stop thinking pennies and start thinking dollars. Time is money and in sales this is very true. What could you have done with those additional 400 minutes or 6.67 hours?

• Made 40 more cold calls at 10 minutes per average?
• Responded to emails?
• Had at least 6 one-hour meetings to further your progress within your sales process?
• Attended 4 business networking events?
• Participated in full day learning seminar?

When you think in pennies, you will probably receive pennies in return. However, when you think in dollars and direct your time to those activities that will generate you more dollars even it costs you a few pennies, then you will reap the rewards including your goal to increase sales.