Guard Your Golden Hours From Distractions (Money Monday)

0:01Jessica Stokes: So going into a follow-up call, I want every important note right at my fingertips, not buried somewhere in a scribbled stack of notes. And with Plod Notepin S, I always have them because it's a wearable, portable note taker that lets me stay present and focused on customers during every single meeting. Plod captures the conversation and turns it into organized summaries and action items so I can follow up faster. And if I need a specific detail, Plod's recall has that ready for me. And that's why Jeb Sr. and I and all of Sales Gravy trusts our Plod Notepin S. Try Plod and stay focused on the conversation while it handles all of your notes.

0:34Jessica Stokes: Go to plod.ai forward slash Jeb. That's plod.ai forward slash Jeb and use code JEB to get 10 % off your purchase.

0:48Jessica Stokes: This is Jeb Blunt and it's Money Monday on the Sales Gravy Podcast. Say, make money, money, make money, money, money. Make money, money, make money, money, money. Money makes the world go round. I'm the talk around town. Remy gave me the sound. I need that strilla on the rilla.

1:14Hi, everyone. Welcome to this episode of Money Monday. I'm Jessica Stokes, filling in this week for Jeb. Have you ever reached the end of the day feeling like you worked hard, but you didn't actually move your business forward? You were answering emails, attending meetings, updating the CRM, responding to Slack messages. And then around five o 'clock, you look back and thought, wait, I never made those calls I wanted to get to. If you've ever experienced that, you're definitely not alone. One of the biggest productivity traps in sales isn't laziness. It's allowing low-valued activities to crowd out the activities that actually generate revenue.

1:52Today, I want to talk about something we teach at Sales Gravy all the time called protecting the golden hours. Because protecting your golden hours might be one of the highest return changes that you can make to generate more revenue. So let's start by defining the golden hours. Golden hours are simply the hours during your workday when you're most likely to create revenue. They're periods when prospects are more likely to answer the phone or respond to your emails. They're also the time when your energy and your focus should be directed towards those activities as the only thing you do. Notice I didn't say busy work.

2:30I said revenue generating activities, things like prospecting, discovery calls, follow up conversations, negotiations, asking for commitments, closing business. Everything else is secondary. Now, here's something to think about. Imagine owning a retail store and your busiest shopping hours are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Would you decide that 12 o 'clock is the perfect time to close up and start mopping the floors? Probably not. You'd clean before the customers arrived or after they left. Yet, this is exactly what many salespeople are doing every day. They spend their prime selling time cleaning up emails, organizing files, doing research, meeting prep, CRM updates, and then they wonder why they have no time to prospect.

3:16Salespeople often confuse motion with progress. Being busy feels productive. Checking off little things gives us a quick dopamine hit. Answering an email feels like an accomplishment. But here's the uncomfortable truth. None of these activities pay your commission check. Customers don't buy because your inbox is organized. They buy because you've consistently followed up and had conversations with them. If your calendar is full, but your pipeline is empty, then you're spending too much time on the wrong things and in the wrong meetings. So here's a simple exercise. Look back over your last week and ask yourself these three questions.

3:58During my best working hours, how much time did I spend talking with customers? How much time did I spend creating new pipeline opportunities? And how much time did I spend advancing deals? Now compare that to how much time did I spend answering emails, attending internal meetings, doing administrative work, scrolling through LinkedIn? Sometimes the answers are shocking, not because we weren't working, but because we were working on the wrong things at the wrong time. Your calendar reflects your priorities. And if prospecting is not on your calendar, it's less likely to get done. So here are three simple habits that can dramatically improve your productivity.

4:47Number one, know when the golden hours are. For many business to business salespeople, it's somewhere between, you know, 8.30 in the morning and noon, or maybe 1 to 4. It depends on your customers. But the important part is identifying when your buyers are actually available, not when it's convenient for you. Schedule your selling activities during those windows and then protect them. Treat them like it is your most important customer meeting because it is. If an internal meeting gets scheduled during that golden hour, decline it or suggest another time. That internal call is better to happen at 4.30 than to take you away from selling activities during your golden hour.

5:31Number two, eliminate the small distractions. Big distractions rarely arrive looking like a dangerous derailer. They look harmless. It looks like answering a quick email or maybe I'm just going to scroll through LinkedIn for five minutes and all of a sudden it's an hour later and your golden hour is gone. So turn off notifications, close out of unnecessary tabs and silence your phone. If you wouldn't stop a meeting with your biggest customer for that distraction, don't do it in your golden hour. Next, ask one question. Before starting any task, ask yourself, Is this the highest value thing I can be doing right now?

6:16That's it. This one question. If the answer is no, then delay it or delete it or do it after the golden hour is over. This simple habit will create tremendous clarity. Now, I want to share a leadership tip before we wrap up this episode. As a sales leader, protecting the golden hours is part of your job too. If you see that your team is scheduling events or being added to internal meetings when they should be selling, then you should advocate for them. Discuss the importance of golden hours with other departments so they aren't taking sellers away from the selling windows. You should not be booking your one-on-ones or your team meetings when they impact golden hours either.

7:00As a leader, you should do whatever you can to ensure that your sales team is set up for success. Now, here's the reality. Every salesperson gets the same 24 hours a day. Top performers don't magically have more time. They simply protect the time that matters the most. If your calendar reveals your priorities and if your golden hours are filled with internal meetings, catching up on emails or administrative work, don't be surprised when your pipeline struggles. But if you consistently use these hours for conversations, prospecting, follow up, advancing opportunities, your pipeline starts growing almost automatically, not overnight, but consistently.

7:41because success in sales isn't built by one massive day. It's built by protecting those golden hours every single day. So this week, I want you to take a look at your calendar, identify your golden hours, protect them, guard them, and use them for the activities that actually generate revenue. You will be amazed what happens to your pipeline. Thanks for listening today. And if this episode encouraged you, share it with another salesperson who might need this reminder. Keep showing up, keep dialing, and keep moving forward. You've been listening to the Sales Gravy Podcast. This is Jessica Stokes.

8:16Make today awesome.

8:39Jessica Stokes: That's why I brought my little scraper.