by Leslie Groene
December is a good time of year to pause and reflect on the past year, lick our wounds, count our blessings, and lay the ground work for the coming year. Some of the getting ready activities are:
- Getting ready for the holidays
- Focusing on new goals and objectives
- Getting ready to chase a whole new set of dreams
In sales, there are getting-ready activities, and there are getting-busy activities. Unfortunately, too many salespeople (one in four) are getting ready to get ready. There is a time to get ready and a time to get busy.
Getting ready is planning, preparation, and rehearsal. Too much getting ready and you’re procrastinating, which is really avoidance behavior. These are the people who stare down the gun sight of life but rarely pull the trigger. Getting ready is important, but getting busy is imperative to your success. You have to be willing to pick up the phone, go out and visit a client and continue to build relationships.
The slide below illustrates how important it is to take the initiative and not just ‘talk’ about it. We need to plan and then execute selling strategies to keep new opportunities in the pipeline.
Make 2018 the year that you surpass or meet your goals instead of fall short!
Focus Point
Build on a solid foundation of excellence when you’re starting out.
This focus point is invaluable if applied. In the beginning of your career, it is vital to build a solid foundation in your approach to building the business. Find mentors who manifest a “best practices” mentality and who are truly role models for you.
Also, you’ll need to find a way to put in the time that is necessary at this stage of your development. As we’ve discussed before, you’ll never stand out from the pack if you have a “9-to-5” approach to your career. You’ll need to get to the office early and be prepared to be the last one to leave. Because you are the “new rep” in the office, everything will be new to you and things will take longer to fall into place.
But once you absorb these lessons, you should be set to apply them from then on and you can move on to learning something else. A mentor who has a proven “track record” in the industry can alert you to specific problem areas and help you to model the productive things they do that contribute to their success.
To get to know these special achievers, you’ll need to commit to attending sales seminars and training seminars within your firm and in your industry. Sometimes an expert who is teaching a seminar will be impressed that you are there and that you care enough to want to be the best that you can be.
As I tell my clients, if you really “want it,” you will find a way to succeed by exhausting every reasonable and ethical means of advancing in your industry!
Learn more about Leslie here.