In Jerry Kramer's book Instant Replay, he explains the concept of "Lombardi Time". This was a custom of his football coach, Vince Lombardi, who believed in always being prepared and ready ahead of time. Specifically, Lombardi would require that his players be ready for meetings or bus rides at least 15 minutes in advance. Kramer says in the book, "We operate on Lombardi time, which is about 15 minutes ahead of all other clocks. If you're only 10 minutes ahead of schedule, you're the last one there, and if you're only 5 minutes ahead of schedule, you're late."

This is a great concept for salespeople to remember. After all, we work so hard to prepare for key sales situations - calls, presentations, demos, research meetings... Yet things happen - rooms are double booked, equipment isn't available, traffic backs up.

In order to be able to respond to whatever happens, we need to show up early. As an example, by arriving at least 15 minutes early for a presentation you will have time to: set up and get organized before the participants file in; find a projector if you need one and the one you reserved isn't available; try to locate another conference room if yours turns out to be unavailable; or ask a coach a last minute strategy question. Not only does arriving early give us time to react to any challenges that come up, it is a sign of professionalism. It shows that we are prepared and have our act together.
There's no question that Lombardi time is a great concept for sales and account management professionals. The only question is if 15 minutes is early enough!