Wow—it’s hard to believe but there are fewer than 100 days left to achieve 2011 goals! Yikes—are you on track to achieve your sales goals?
I’ve been in sales for almost 20 years and I’m still the chief sales officer in our business. Just about every year, at the onset of the 4th quarter, I’ll admit, I go into stress and panic mode
Each year, I have a stronger and more strategic sales plan than the previous year. However, I always have a bigger sales goal each year—so even though I have a stronger sales strategy, its exactly what I have to do to achieve the double digit sales growth I set at the beginning of each year. So, at this time of year, I still find myself in panic mode, wondering just where is this additional revenue going to come from?
Here’s a few questions to ask yourself:
- Are you on track to achieve your 2011 goals?
- What will you START doing?
- What will you STOP doing?
- What will you DO DIFFERENTLY?
- What do you want to be MOST proud of accomplishing on December 31?
For those of you like me who have been working hard all year but realize you’re still a bit short of achieving your big sales goal for the year, let me share with you some of the strategies, I’m going to START, STOP and DO DIFFERENTLY to ensure I slam dunk our big hairy audacious sales goal this year and guarantee a celebration on December 31!
I’m going to START creating a new list of all the clients that I will contact to secure business this fall. I’m going to START making calls, not just one day a week; I’m going to increase to three days a week with 10 calls/connects per day. I will schedule the one hour per day in my calendar to hold myself accountable to complete these calls on the chosen days. I’m going to START “tweeting” to test the effectiveness of this social media tool in helping me to achieve my sales goal.
I’m going to STOP allowing any interruptions, procrastination or excuses to get in the way of making these 10 calls each day. I’m also going to STOP any self-doubt of not achieving this sales goal. I’m going to kick any of those negative thoughts out of my brain—there is no room for this type of saboteur talk in the 4th quarter!
I will add social media as my “DO DIFFERENTLY.” I’m going to use LinkedIn as another method of connecting to these hot prospects and clients. I will add weekly updates on my LinkedIn and Facebook pages. I will change my email signature each month for the next three months. I will ask clients for referrals—yep, I’m going to ask for a total of 10 referrals during the next 90 days. Yikes, that’s harder than asking for the business, but I want to achieve my sales goal and I’m willing to push myself out of my comfort zone to get this done!
I will be proud of achieving our sales goal on December 31… and will savour the taste of champagne to celebrate the achievement of this goal. What will you be doing on December 31 to celebrate your hard work and success?
