By Michelle Nichols

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all," legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said. His quote really resonates with me, especially on those occasional mornings when I have to get up too soon after I've gone to bed. In my mind I picture the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz as a door-to-door salesman -- and it isn't a pretty sight.

This column was conceived on such a morning, the result of a late-night flight home from Las Vegas and a 2 a.m. bedtime. These are full-strength coffee days, and this one got me thinking about the negative effect a shortage of sack time can have on business relationships.

THE ELVIS DIET.  Sleep deprivation impacts your confidence, and when you routinely short-change yourself on sleep, it can translate into lower sales. Does that sound too drastic? Let me count the ways that fatigue-induced cowardice hurts your selling activities.

When you're sleepy, you're less likely to have the confidence to:
• Ask for the order
• Make extra prospecting calls
• Follow-up with interested clients
• Solicit referrals
• Research prospective customers and business opportunities
• Upsell your customers

Add up all these effects, and it becomes clear that a missed quota may not be far off. Late-night reruns and a few laughs with Conan O'Brien, it seems, just aren't worth it.

Some folks think they can compensate for the lack of shut-eye with a little extra caffeine or a sugar jolt. In reality, all that coffee does is make you shake through the day. And if you eat too many gooey pastries or candy bars, you may, in the words of Elvis Presley, rattle and roll, too.

FATIGUE FOLLIES.  The impact of sleeplessness goes beyond sales cowardice. It also affects how you sell. Sticking with Lombardi's philosophy, fatigue makes bumblers of us all, too. Besides decreasing the quantity of your selling activities, not getting your 40 winks also hurts the quality of the time you spend one-on-one with customers.

When you're tired, your mind is less sharp. You are more likely to:
• Stumble, or even go blank, when faced with a standard objection
• Overlook an opportunity that may be even bigger than the one you were selling
• Have to call clients back later with better solutions to their problems or answers to their questions than the ones your sleepily proposed
• Make a flippant or ill-advised comment that you later regret -- or have to apologize for
• Experience poor health from a diminished immune system. Who wants to invite a hacking and coughing salesperson into their office? Yuck.

For most of us, the option of sleeping later on a workday morning is not an option. The answer then, is to regularly turn in earlier. Maybe that means shutting off the TV sooner or reading for a shorter period of time. To help me turn off my brain, I restrict my late-night reading to fiction -- no business after the clock strikes 10 p.m.

TIME IS MONEY.   Getting more sleep while living the rest of your busy life requires excellent time-management skills. To maintain your sales volume, focus on those selling activities that generate the highest ROT --- return on time. Review how you spend your time -- really spend it -- and look for ways to spend less on paperwork, accounting, and other great monopolizers.

Granted, there are going to be days, like this morning for me, when you won't get all the sleep you need. That's O.K. -- don't use it as an excuse not to get out there and give the selling day your very best shot. Just be extra careful with what you say and how you say it. Pay closer attention to everything that's going on. And try to catch up on your sleep the next night.

Sleep experts suggest adopting a routine. If you go to bed late all week and plan to sleep until noon on Saturday, that's a bad idea. Progressively, it puts you at a selling disadvantage -- one that grows larger all through the week and by Friday, you're a loose cannon.

BRIGHT AS A PIN.  Try not to plan important meetings or presentations on days when you know you'll be working late the night before. Likewise, the night before a big presentation, don't stay up past midnight rehashing inconsequential details. Go to bed early, and be fresh and sharp when you need to be.

If you sleep more, you really will sell more. So tonight, go to bed at a reasonable time and when you wake up tomorrow, jump out of bed, and sell something. Happy selling!

Nichols is a sales speaker, trainer, and consultant based in Houston. She welcomes your questions and comments. Visit her Web site at savvyselling.com