Decades ago, my mentor, Milt Pierce, wrote what became a long-running control mailing for Good Housekeeping.

The envelope teaser: “144 Ways Good Housekeeping Can Save You Time and Money.”

Why did this direct mail package remain unbeaten in the mail for over a quarter of a century?

Back then, saving time and money were two big appeals. And they remain so today.

In fact, in the 21st century, saving your customer time is more important than ever.

Why? Because your customers, like the Egyptian mummies, are “pressed for time”.

We all have too much to do…and not enough time to do it.

One reason people are so busy is more working women: when both spouses work, there’s no one at home to take care of all the household business…and so a working person has to do it.

What does this mean for you as a marketer?

Simply this…

In your sales and marketing efforts, if you can show the customer how you can save him time or serve him faster, your sales will skyrocket.

Conversely, wasting the customer’s time is one of the surest ways to turn prospects off.

For example: in my little copywriting business I have a “virtual office”—my assistants work in their own homes many miles away from my office in River Vale, NJ.

Because of this, I work in complete isolation. So, some days, I break up the isolation by going out for a quick lunch to a local coffee shop.

While I was eating lunch a few weeks ago, at the busiest peak of the lunch hour, two young women walked in.

I immediately identified them as salespeople by the way they carried themselves, their manner, and their corporate attire.

Sure enough, instead of asking for a menu, they asked Peg, the waitress, if they could speak with the owner—who also happens to be the short-order cook.

Peg walked over to the grill and relayed the message to him. His irritation was immediate, visible, and audible.

In other words, he was pissed.

Peg came back and told the women, “I’m sorry, but it is the middle of lunch hour, and he is busy with orders.”

Crestfallen, the two salespeople thanked Peg and left. Peg then turned to me, and said, “How stupid can they be – to call on a restaurant owner during lunch hour?”

Of course, she is right: by making a sales call during the height of lunch hour, these sales amateurs showed an utter disregard for the prospect’s time.

He returned the favor by refusing to see them or buy what they were selling.

In contrast, here’s an example of a company that won a big sale by making an extra effort to respect the customer’s busy schedule and save him time.

Years ago, I did some work for a company—let’s call them ABC Software—that was a software distributor to the corporate market.

A salesperson for ABC told me the following story…

He was trying to get a big corporate account—let’s call them XYZ Corporation—to buy their software from ABC.

One of the advantages ABC offered was that they did not require a separate purchase order (PO) for each purchase.

The customer only had to issue a blanket PO one time to ABC to cover all purchases.

This saved purchasing departments a lot of time.

But even though ABC did not require a separate PO for each software package purchased, XYZ’s accounting department did.

“My hands are tied,” said XYZ’s purchasing manager to ABC’s salesman. “I’d like to use you, but I just don’t have time to fill out all those POs.”

“Not a problem,” replied ABC Software’s persistent salesman. “Just give me a stack of blank POs. Whenever you want to buy a software package, just let me know. I will fill out the PO for you, and then fax it to you for your signature.”

By offering to lift the paperwork burden from the customer onto his shoulders, the salesman saved that customer a lot of time…and as a result, won a major national account.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.