The countdown is on. There are approximately 34 days left on the calendar (depending on when you read this) to hit your 2014 sales goal. For some sales managers and salespeople, there is little anxiety because the ‘money is in the bank.’ Not so much for others. There are sales professionals looking for ways to execute a Hail Mary pass in the fourth quarter in order to hit their revenue touchdown.
So what’s the difference between the two sales camps? Top sales producers are good at stopping and starting the right activities.
STOP!
- Wasting time. Salespeople waste a bunch of time pursuing opportunities that are never going to close. They have a full sales pipeline filled with ‘suspects’ that keeps them busy with call backs, need more information, (and more information) and references. These suspects have plenty of time to waste and little money to invest.
START:
- Conducting quarterly win-loss analysis. Look at the demographics and psychographics of where you are winning business. Is there a size, industry, pain point, life cycle where your products and services provide a clear value and return on investment? Clean out your sales pipeline. Sure, it’s comfortable calling on the same people. What’s not comfortable is staring at an empty bank account.
STOP!
- Being average. Sales is an absolutely miserable profession to be mediocre. It’s kind of like running into a brick wall every day—on purpose! Mastery is within your control. You can control your sales activity, improvement of influence skills and knowledge.
START:
- Treating sales as a profession. Lawyers and CPA’s are required to earn continuing education credits in order to practice their professions. Why not require the same of yourself. Business continues to change—do you?
STOP!
- Using words such as try, gonna, should or pretty soon. They send a message to your brain that you are not serious about changing or improving. No one cares about your intentions. People only care about your actions.
START:
- Improving today.
Good Selling !