With permission, one of my successful friends has agreed to let me share the three steps he took to hit some very steep sales goals last fiscal, which I shamelessly emulated (copied).
- He kept his eye, and his team's eyes, on the goal. The sales target seemed impossibly high, in fact it was common knowledge that there was no way for the team to achieve it (they did). He eliminated all distracting behaviour with one simple question, "will this help us to achieve x$?" (the annual sales goal). If not, the intended activity was not approved. As he likes to say, "strategy exists so we can say 'no' to some very good ideas."
- Measurable activities were broken down into manageable daily goals. X number of prospecting calls per month meant X number per day, a more achievable goal. Same for sales calls, trade show leads, you name it. Do the math.
- Time periods are front end loaded. Want to make X number of calls in a month? Do the math, dividing the number by 15 days (3 working weeks) instead of 20 days (4 working weeks) so even if you fall a bit behind or have to do other activities that take you away from the phone, you're not scrambling in the last week (along with all the other mediocre sales people dialing for dollars). The same for the year - divide the annual sales goal into 11, not 12 months and spend the last month with maybe a bit of catching up instead of desperately begging your customer for a signed contract just to hit the sales target.
What I noticed most was what he didn't say. None of the old "if you believe it, you can achieve it" horse crap plays into his plan. It's all about straight up focused effort and uncompromising vision.
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