In movies about the Cold War, such as Fail Safe, starring Henry Fonda, the Strategic Air Command issues orders to attacking pilots that contains primary, secondary, and tertiary targets.

If they are precluded from striking the primary or top priority target, they are to move on to the secondary, and so forth.

In business, we only have a primary target: getting customers and keeping them.

Everything else, for our purposes is secondary or tertiary, or even less of a priority.

Unlike pilots, businesspeople shouldnt even think about diverting their focus from whats number one. Its simply a waste of time.

For example, a lot of salespeople try to avoid rejection by using weak, counterproductive language, that, I detail in other articles. By seeking interpersonal acceptance, the apparent opposite of rejection, as their primary focus, theyre seeking a secondary gain.

And this is a waste of time.

They shouldnt be thinking of rejection, at all. The running back who gets the football may know he needs a yard for the first down, but his legs are prepared to carry him into the end zone, if he can break enough tackles.

His primary target is always SCORING. He is a scoring machine, not a one-yard at a time machine.

I knew a marketing manager who was excellent at his job, but who would have made a terrible salesman. He shared his philosophy with me, one day.

Life is too short to deal with unpleasant people!

So, he would avoid unpleasantness at almost all costs. In business, this is definitely a secondary gain, and putting it first, is having your priorities out of whack.

The next time things arent clicking for you in the sales or customer service process, or your productivity is declining, or youre just feeling ambivalent or listless, do a check up from the neck up.

Clarify whats primary, eliminate everything else, and prosper!