If you’re a wine sales rep on the street, visiting accounts every day, dusting off your bottles, showing new products, trying to hit sales goals, running will calls, answering the phone, and putting out fires all day, this is for you.

A challenge for one week. When you park your car in front of an account, and you’re all set to jump out and do you thing, do the following:

1. Put your phone on silent or do not disturb.
2. Set your timer for one minute. Hit start.
3. Sit for one minute and think about what you’re going to say when you walk in, how you are going to say it, envision success, envision confidence, envision problem solving, envision eye contact and body movement. Have your mental checklist of what to accomplish clear and clean.
4. When your timer goes off, head inside and do your thing.

And then, when the call is done and you’re back in your car:

1. Set your timer for one minute. Hit start. Sit quietly, no radio and no distractions.
2. Reflect on how the sales call went. Write things down if you want. What could have gone better? What obstacles do you need to overcome? How can next week’s call be even better?
3. When your timer goes off, return your phone to active and head to the next call.

Assuming you make six sales calls in a day, this exercise will add up to twelve extra minutes a day. That’s all.

And they are the best use of twelve minutes I can think of.