Sales & Sales Management Brew

Guaranteed?  Only if you execute what is outlined below.  I'm sure you've been asked by a prospect if you can guarantee a product or service that you offer.  In the world of sales, that can be one of the toughest questions to answer.  When I am asked that question, I tell them "yes, if": if they can guarantee that they (the company or sales person) can guarantee that they will do everything that we teach them.  No one makes that guarantee. Here are my steps to guaranteed sales success for next year.  You do these things and you will succeed.

 

 

1. Take time to establish personal (not business sales goals) goals that you have to accomplish (non-negotiable). Set time lines for, and share these goals with people that will make sure you are doing everything possible to succeed.
2. Build a success formula (link to our resources) so that you can translate your personal goals and the associated income required into an action plan that, when executed, will allow you to reach your goals. (The key here is that you must know your business to arrive at the various critial converstion ratios from one sales step to the next.)
3. Report your sales activity results weekly (huddles)to someone that cares enough to congratulate you on success or coach you when you are failing.
4. Undertand that missing an activity target by just 1% is still failing.
5. Review your actual sales activity results monthly against your success formula assumptions and make adjustments if your are falling short in effort or execution requirements. 
6. Once you identify gaps in your performance, reach out and get professional coaching help from someone that can help you, not just coddle you.
7. Take responsibility.  Don't blame the economy, the competition or your company for failure.  You are in control of your own outcomes, good or bad.
8. Manage yourself to success.  Do not let yourself get sideways with tasks and activities that make you feel good at the expense of the hard stuff like prospecting.  Prospecting is the job. It is what separates you from account managers.
9. Reward yourself for success and establish consequences for failure.

Now is the time to start this process.  In most B to B sales environments, there is a sales cycle that takes more than 30 days.  Guess what?  What you do right now, today, determines your success in the next 30 days.  Start NOW!