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June 2, 2025 12 mins
If you are spending more time staring at your windshield instead of looking into your customers' eyes, you are doing field sales wrong.  Over the past couple of years, there's been a resurgence in field sales. Businesses everywhere are adding field salespeople and sending representatives out into the territory to meet with customers face-to-face.  And for good reason—human beings buy from human beings. The most powerful way to anchor relationships, solve problems, and sell more is to get in front of your customers. With AI creating so much noise in the system, it's getting harder to prospect via email and social media. Going out and knocking on doors has become an easier way to connect with people, build relationships, and open up opportunities in your pipeline.  And the good news, at least for now, is that prospects are happy to see field sales pros and inviting them in to their businesses and homes.  But with the resurgence of outside sales comes an age-old problem: Field salespeople have got to travel to get to customers. And here's the brutal reality—the single greatest waste of time for field sales professionals is staring at a windshield. On this Money Monday segment of the Sales Gravy Podcast I'm going to teach you exactly how to minimize windshield time and maximize face time. Because at the end of the day, you don't get paid to drive. You get paid to sell. The Windshield Time Delusion Too many reps delude themselves into believing that driving from one place to another is "working." Let's get something straight: Driving is not an accomplishment. I don't care if you put 100 miles on your vehicle in a day. That doesn't mean you accomplished anything meaningful. It just means you drove from one place to the next, burning dinosaurs and wasting time. I see this all the time. Reps will drive to one customer, then drive all the way across their territory to another customer, instead of concentrating their work in a single geographic area.  They'll dead-head out to an appointment, then drive all the way back to the office, passing up dozens of prospects they could have walked into along the way. Don’t confuse activity with productivity.  Just because you drove all over creation, that doesn’t mean you had a productive day.  Your job is to be in front of customers, not behind a steering wheel. Every minute you spend staring at your windshield is a minute you're not building relationships, solving problems, putting new opportunities in the pipe or closing deals. The Mathematics of Effective Field Sales Territory Management  Let me put this in perspective with some simple math that will blow your mind. Let's say you're a typical field sales rep working in a moderate-sized territory. You make 5 customer visits per day, and between poor route planning and territory management, you spend an average of 45 minutes driving between each appointment. That's 3 hours and 45 minutes of windshield time daily. Over a 5-day work week, that's 18 hours and 45 minutes of non-productive driving time. That's nearly half of your work week spent accomplishing absolutely nothing. Now, let's say you tighten up your territory management and reduce that drive time to 20 minutes between appointments through better planning. You're now down to 1 hour and 40 minutes of windshield time daily, or 8 hours and 20 minutes weekly. You just freed up more than 10 hours per week. That's enough time for 15 to 20 additional customer visits or prospect calls. Over a month, that's 60-80 more customer touchpoints. Over a year, that's 720-960 additional opportunities to build relationships and generate revenue. The reps who figure out how to minimize windshield time don't just have better work-life balance—they absolutely dominate their territories and blow past their quotas while their competitors are still driving around wastefully. Map Your Territory Into Quadrants This is why the first rule of field sales is get...
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday
on the Sales Gravy Podcast.
Make money, money, money,
money.
Make money, money,
money. Money, money, money. Money, money, money. Money,
money, money. Money, money, money. Money, money, money.
Money, money, money. Money, money, money. Money, money.
Money, money, money. Money, money, money. Money, money,
money. Money makes the world go round. I'm
a talk around town. Remy gave me the
sound. Red pockets. Alright. It is Monday, the
most important day of the week because when
you seize this day and start your week

(00:26):
strong, you'll end your week strong.
And I'm back after taking a hiatus from
Memorial Day with an important message for field
sales professionals who are often spending more time
staring at their windshield
instead of looking into their customers' eyes.
Over the past couple of years, there's been
a rebirth of field sales. Businesses everywhere are

(00:47):
adding field salespeople and sending reps out into
their territories to meet with customers face to
face, and for good reason.
Human beings buy from human beings.
The most powerful way to anchor relationships,
solve problems, and sell more is to actually
get in front of your customers.
And with AI creating so much noise in

(01:08):
the system, it's getting harder to prospect via
email and social media.
So going out and knocking on doors has
become an easier way to connect with people,
build relationships,
and open opportunities in your pipeline.
And the good news, at least for now,
is that prospects are happy to see field
sales pros and are inviting them in. I

(01:28):
know this firsthand. I've been out with sales
reps and it's surprising
how open people are to having conversations with
you. Whereas twenty years ago, if you walked
into a business, they'd probably kick you right
out.
But with this rebirth of outside sales comes
an age old problem.
Field salespeople
have got to get into vehicles to travel

(01:48):
to customers
And the single greatest waste of time for
field sales professionals
is in vehicles staring at a windshield traveling
to customers.
So today, I'm gonna teach you exactly how
to minimize windshield time and maximize face time
because at the end of the day, you
don't get paid to drive, you get paid
to sell.
Now, too many sales reps delude themselves into

(02:10):
believing
that driving from one place to another is
working.
So let's get this straight from the get
go. Driving is not an accomplishment.
I don't care if you put a hundred
miles on your vehicle today. That doesn't mean
you accomplished anything meaningful. It just means you
drove from one place to the next burning
dinosaurs and wasting time.

(02:30):
I see this everywhere I go. Reps will
drive to one customer
and then drive two hours all the way
across their territory to get to another customer.
They'll dead head out to an appointment and
then drive all the way back to the
office passing dozens of prospects they could have
walked into along the way.
So don't confuse activity with productivity.

(02:52):
Just because you drove all over creation
doesn't mean you had a productive day. You
see, your job is to be in front
of customers,
not behind a steering wheel. And every minute
you spend staring at your windshield is a
minute you're not building relationships,
solving problems, putting new opportunities in the pipe,
and closing deals.
Let me put this in perspective with some

(03:13):
simple math.
Let's say you're a typical sales rep working
in a moderate sized territory.
You make five customer visits per day. In
between poor route planning and territory management, you
spend an average of forty five minutes driving
between each appointment.
That's three hours and forty five minutes of
windshield time. And over a five day work
week, that's eighteen hours and forty five minutes

(03:35):
of non productive time where nearly half your
work week is spent accomplishing
absolutely nothing.
Now let's say we tighten this up and
reduce the drive time to twenty minutes between
appointments through better planning.
Now we're down to one hour and forty
minutes of windshield time daily or eight hours
and twenty minutes over the week.
We just freed up ten hours per week.

(03:57):
That's enough time for 15 to 20 additional
customer visits or prospecting calls. Over a month,
that's 60 to 80 more customer touch points.
Over a year, that's 720
to 960
additional
opportunities
to build relationships, build pipe, and generate revenue.
The reps who figure this out get a
better work life balance,

(04:19):
but they also dominate their territories and blow
past their quotas while everyone else is driving
around aimlessly in their territories.
This is why the first rule of field
sales is getting your territory mapped, segmented, and
planned to reduce drive time.
I remember when I started out in field
sales, the first thing my sales manager did

(04:39):
was sit down with me and help me
map my territory into quadrants where I'd be
working on specific days of the week. I
clearly remember him saying that if it's Monday
and you're in your Thursday quadrant, you better
have a damn good reason.
And the truth is at the time, I
didn't quite understand exactly what we were doing,
but soon it made sense. Because by concentrating

(05:00):
my focus each day in a tighter geographic
area, I wasted less time and I made
a lot more money.
Start by printing out a map and grabbing
a Sharpie and then mark it up. Monday
might be the Northeast quadrant, Tuesday the Southeast,
Wednesday the Southwest,
Thursday, the Northwest. And Friday, that could be
your flex day for special situations

(05:22):
or your highest priority accounts regardless of location.
And keep that map visible where you can
see it.
The tighter your route planning, the more selling
time you create and the less windshield time
you waste. And yes, you will get off
track from time to time. That's the real
world. But because you've built a set of
tracks, when you get off, you know where
to get back on.

(05:43):
Then, use the hub and spoke model to
maximize your time in each geographical area. It
works like this.
Once you have an appointment booked on your
calendar, use your CRM and mapping tools to
preplan and route five additional drop ins or
door swings around that appointment.
This will both increase the number of prospecting
calls you make each day and help you

(06:05):
avoid the temptation to just head back to
the office after your appointment.
You'll increase your productivity further with the practice
of tea calling.
As you walk into or out of those
pre planned prospecting calls, look to your left,
look to your right, and look behind you,
and then knock on those doors too. Walk
in, introduce yourself, and start building relationships.
You're already there. You've already invested the windshield

(06:28):
time to get to that location, so maximize
your return on that investment.
Think about it. With this methodology,
you can easily squeeze in an additional 10
to 15 prospecting touches after each scheduled appointment.
It's how you get every ounce of productivity
out of your sales day.
And Territory Planning and Mapping helps you make

(06:49):
better decisions about responding to customer requests.
If a customer calls you on Tuesday needing
help, rather than dropping everything and driving all
the way to their location,
assess whether it's truly an emergency
or if it can wait until you're in
that part of your territory on Thursday.
Learn how to say, you know, I'll be
in your area on Thursday. Can I schedule

(07:12):
some time with you then?
You see, most requests that feel urgent really
aren't, so don't let poor planning by others
derail your territory strategy.
And when you do need to leave one
part of your territory in order to handle
a high priority customer, don't deadhead straight back
to your office or home base. Look left,
look right, and look behind you, and make

(07:34):
additional calls in that immediate area before you
leave.
But no matter how well you plan, you're
still going to spend time behind the wheel.
So here's a critical question. When you're driving
between accounts,
what's coming through your speakers?
Is what you're listening to lifting you up,
making you better, helping you make more money,

(07:54):
or is it tearing you down? Top performers,
ultra performers
attend automobile
university. Instead of listening to the news or
sports radio that usually puts you in a
negative mindset, they're listening to audiobooks, training courses,
and business podcasts.
The compound effect of consistently investing in yourself
while you're driving is enormous.

(08:17):
If you spend just sixty minutes a day
listening to educational content in your car,
that's five hours per week, twenty hours per
month,
two
forty hours per year of professional development
while you're driving your car. That's the equivalent
of six full work weeks of training annually

(08:37):
just from drive time.
When you're always learning, you improve your skills.
You build stronger business acumen. You stay current
with industry trends, and you develop a competitive
edge over reps who waste their windshield time
listening to talk radio. And most importantly,
consistently learning maintains a stronger belief system and
a winning attitude. You arrive at each appointment

(08:58):
energized and confident instead of drained and negative.
So here's what I want you to do
right now. First, audit your current wind chill
time. For the next week, track exactly how
much time you spend driving. Calculate the total
number of hours that you're spending behind the
wheel. This number will probably shock you.
Next, map out your territory into quadrants.

(09:18):
Get out a map and a Sharpie, divide
your territory into logical geographical sections and assign
each section to specific days of the week
and commit to staying in your designated areas
except when absolutely necessary.
Then plan all your routes in advance.
Every evening or first thing in the morning,
use your CRM and mapping tools to plan

(09:39):
your most efficient route through your designated quadrant
so that you're not just winging it and
you're avoiding traffic and places that can hold
you up. Then, I want you to implement
the hub and spoke method. For every scheduled
appointment, pre plan five additional prospecting calls in
that immediate area.
And when you pair this with T calls,
you'll turn a single appointment into a territory

(10:02):
blitz.
Next, create your learning playlist.
Download three audiobooks,
subscribe to five relevant podcasts, or enroll in
at least one audio training course. And you
can find audio training courses on Salisbury University.
And by the way,
the new remastered audiobook version of my international
bestseller, SalesEQ,

(10:24):
was just released this week, so perhaps you
might make SalesEQ
one of your first choices.
And finally, track your progress.
Keep a log of the time that you're
saving by staying in your quadrants, what you're
learning during your drive time, and how it's
impacting your performance.
And when you get off track, and you
will, commit to getting right back on your

(10:45):
plan.
I'll be back with my final thoughts in
just a moment. But first, a big shout
out and a huge thank you to Michael
Mayender,
Eric Zonizer,
Dan Albani,
and Michelle Hill for sharing the Sales Groovy
podcast with their followers on LinkedIn. And, look,
if you're getting value from this podcast,
please do me a solid and take a

(11:06):
moment to share it on LinkedIn and tag
me in that share and give us a
five star rating on Apple or Spotify.
Remember that in field sales, time is literally
money. Every minute you're wasting staring at your
windshield is money out of your pocket. But
every minute you invest in smart territory planning
and continuous learning is an investment in your

(11:28):
success.
The field sales professionals who master territory management
don't just sell more. They work smarter, they
reduce stress, and they create more time for
the things in their life that matter outside
of work. So stop staring at your windshield
and start looking into your customers' eyes because
that's where the money is. And remember, when
you've been out in the field all day

(11:50):
knocking on doors and you're ready to quit,
always stop and make one more call. This
is Jeb Blunt, and I'll see you next
time on the Sales Gravy Podcast.
Survival of the fitness. You could sink or
swim. I've been broke. I ain't never going
back again. I need some c notes, some
cheddar, and a stack of ends. I need
a bowl of dough. I don't need no

(12:10):
Facebook friends. No. I need a pack of
them snaps, a handful of of fetti wops,
a rubber band on my green bags. Look,
doll, don't be playing with my paper. I
need every rare scent. That's why I brought
my little scraper.
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