Sales leaders, it’s important to stop scheduling late afternoon meetings in which you and members of your team need to make important decisions. There is a reason why these meetings always run long and very little gets done in them.
It’s called Decision Fatigue.
The science is simple; we make roughly 35,000 decisions each day starting from the moment we wake up. As the quantity of decisions we make goes up, the quality of our decisions go down.
By the mid to late afternoon our brain is fatigued. In this state we make suboptimal decisions, analysis by paralysis sets in and that 15 minute meeting at 4:30 runs an extra 20 minutes long.
Even worse, important decisions outside of work get harder to make when sales leaders push sellers to use up everything they have left in the tank on an inefficient EOD meeting.
Salespeople become more likely to:
- Skip the gym.
- Order in fast food instead of cook.
- Have wine and beer instead of water.
- Binge Netflix instead of going for a walk.
- Stay up late scrolling.
Bad decisions that prevent healthy rest and accelerate employees towards decision fatigue the next day.
If you’re a sales leader, be mindful of this today and ask yourself: Do I need my team to make important decisions in this meeting?
If “yes”, schedule it for tomorrow morning when they’re fresh.
However, in situations where it is absolutely necessary to have the meeting, then encourage your team members to do the following ahead of time:
- Short meditation.
- Short nap.
- Walk in greenspace like a park.
All of these actions have been proven to help refresh the brain to combat decision fatigue.
Finally, as their leader you should also consider narrowing the number of decisions down to one or two options so there is less to decide on at the end of the day.
For example, “Should we move forward with X or Y?” – versus – “Lets debate all the different options we have to resolve this problem”
Save the latter for a morning meeting.
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About The Author
Jeff Riseley is currently the Founder of the Sales Health Alliance and Mental Health Advocate. With over a decade of sales experience – Jeff understands the importance of Mental Health in achieving peak sales performance.
Jeff combines his sales and Mental Health expertise to improve sales performance through mental health best practices. His strategies have helped sales teams become more motivated, resilient and better equipped to tackle stressful events within sales.
