Lesson #1: Every minute matters, so make it count

Part 2 of the “Lessons from the grid” LinkedIn article series

Early in my racing career, a veteran driver corrected me when I talked about “getting in” my race car.?

“You don't get in a race car,” he told me. “You put it on.”

At first, I thought he was just splitting hairs. But as I spent more time on the track, I understood what he meant. A race car isn't just a vehicle you sit in: it becomes a physical extension of the driver, with every single component engineered for maximum performance. There's no room for extras, no space for nice-to-haves. Every ounce of weight must serve a specific purpose.

This point was hammered home even further when I built my first race car. Specifically, I learned that every single component had to do one of four things:

• Make the car go faster.
• Make the car stop quicker.
• Help the car carry more speed through a corner.
• Keep the driver safe.

Anything else was just unnecessary weight that would slow the car down.?

Think about it this way: instead of cushioned seats and climate control, you're strapped into a bare aluminum seat with no padding, wearing a three-layer firesuit in a 120-degree cockpit. You're surrounded by a skeletal roll cage that provides both safety and structural rigidity – and nothing more. All of the creature comforts we’re used to in commercially available cars are nowhere in sight. No cup holders. No radio. No air conditioning. In a race car, every gram is scrutinized, every component questioned: “Does this make us faster? Does this make us safer? If not, why is it here?”?

If it doesn’t serve a clear purpose – whether for performance or safety – it’s gone.

From pit stop to pipeline

This ruthless focus on purpose has profound implications for how we sell.?

Unlike in racing where you might still get a trophy for second or third place, there's no second-place commission check in sales. We're either winning or we're not, which means we need to make every minute of our day count.

Think about your typical sales day. How many activities directly contribute to:

• Understanding customer needs;
• Building pipeline;
• Establishing meaningful relationships with prospects;
• Moving deals forward; or,
• Closing business.

Now, think about everything else.?

The unnecessary meetings.?

The unfocused prospecting.?

The administrative tasks that could be automated.?

That's your cup holder, your radio, your air conditioning – dead weight slowing you down on your path to quota.

Technology as a performance multiplier

In racing, we use technology to eliminate inefficiencies and amplify performance. Every sensor, every data point, every piece of telemetry serves a purpose: to make the car and driver perform better. Under race conditions, drivers need instant access to critical information — engine temperature, oil pressure, revolutions per minute (or RPMs) — but we can't waste time interpreting complex readouts. That's why race cars are engineered so all gauges point to 12 o'clock when everything's running optimally. This elegant solution turns complex data into actionable insights in a split second.

The same principle applies to sales. When sales engagement platforms (SEPs) first arrived on the scene, they completely transformed how we, as sellers, thought about our day-to-day activity.? It wasn't just about doing more: it was about optimizing every action. Technology shouldn't just make you busy; it should make you efficient. It should eliminate non-sales tasks, automate routine work, and replace bias and habit with insights and data.

The weight of time

Time is to a seller what weight is to a race car. Every minute added to non-selling activities is like adding unnecessary weight to a race car. It might not seem like much in the moment – what's five minutes here or there? But in racing, an extra few ounces can mean the difference between winning and losing.?

The same goes for sales.

Consider this: if you could eliminate just 30 minutes of non-selling activities from your day, that's 120 hours per year you could redirect to revenue-generating activities. That's three full work weeks of pure selling time.?

What could you do with three extra weeks of selling?

The modern sales cockpit

Today's sales technology should be like a modern race car cockpit — where every gauge is positioned so critical information can be understood at a glance, everything streamlined and purposeful to amplify human performance.?

You shouldn't “log into” your sales tools; you should put them on, just like a race car. They should become an extension of how you sell, helping you:

• Focus on high-value activities.
• Eliminate administrative burden.
• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Surface actionable insights.
• Drive consistent execution.

Think of these capabilities like the gauges, controls, and readouts in a race car: each one is designed to give you critical information and control when you need it. When technology is truly optimized this way, it becomes second nature, letting you focus entirely on the art of selling. And that's when the real performance gains begin.

Making every minute matter

The difference between “good” and “great” often comes down to efficiency.?

In racing, we obsess over shaving off fractions of a second per lap. In sales, we should obsess over saving minutes per day. Here's how:

1. Audit your activities: Track everything you do for a week. Categorize each activity as either directly contributing to revenue or supporting activities. Be ruthless in your assessment.
2. Eliminate the unnecessary: Look for meetings you don't need to attend, reports you don't need to run, processes that could be streamlined or eliminated.
3. Automate the routine: Use technology to handle repetitive tasks. Every manual action you automate is weight off your car.
4. Optimize your technology: Ensure your tech stack is serving you, not the other way around. If you're spending more time managing tools than selling, something needs to change.

The pursuit of peak performance – whether in racing or sales – demands we constantly question what's necessary and what's weighing us down. Every component must serve a purpose. Every minute must matter.

In my next post, we'll explore another critical lesson from racing: knowing your track. Because once you've optimized your car (or your selling time), you need to know exactly how to use it.