The following quote is taken from the best book on salesmanship that I have ever read. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger.

Later on, I will show how keeping records helped me to organize myself so that I was gradually able to increase the value of my calls from $2.30 to $19.00 each; how over a period of years, i cut down my average of closing only 1 out of 29 to 1 out of 25, then 1 out of 20, 1 out of 10, and finally 1 out of 3. Let me give just one example now:

The records showed that 70% of my sales were made on the 1st interview, 23% on the 2nd interview, and 7% on the 3rd and after. But listen to this: 50% of my time was spent going after the 7%. "So why bother with the 7%," I thought. "Why not put all my time on the first and second interviews?"

That decision alone increased the value of each call from $2.80 to $4.27.

You can plainly see that by cutting out the awkward "come back later" people, Frank Bettger was able to work smart, and earn more money for doing less. This is possible in any walk of life, not just selling! What can you do today which will allow you to do less work, whilst earning more money? Have a think about it, I know that everyone should be able to come up with at least one idea.