Blog

Commitment

HOW do I reach my goals?

Now that your goals are written, we move to creating a strategy for achievement.

This is kind of fun because you can focus on HOW you will achieve this. During your evaluation and assessment of the year, you might have noticed that you like doing some strategies more than others, or you were better at some than others, or some strategies were more effective than others.  You may have found that the market or buying habits of your customers/clients has changed and you need to adjust your appro…

Read more…

What exactly are goals?

Consider WHAT you WANT to create and achieve next year. What matters to you so much that you are going to “make it happen,” as my father used to say by setting a strategy. Those are your goals.

Goals should always be written as RESULTS. Articulation is important. I like the S-M-A-R-T process because it’s clear and simple.

               Specific                             Clear, not ambiguous or vague.
               Measurable                    It can be counted. Numbers or percentages…

Read more…

Goals Again

Yes. Goals again!

In most showrooms, December is rather quiet, with customers, clients and designers preparing for and celebrating the holidays. Prior to setting goals for the new year, December is a good month for evaluation and analysis if you didn’t do so in November. If not, see my November blogs for assistance.

Are you noticing any resistance to writing goals for next year? Do you have any sense that you don’t really need to do write goals? Perhaps you feel that you have figured out a p…

Read more…

Differently

Differently? What?

We have looked at what to do more of, less of…and now differently.

Doing things differently is just that. If you have been ‘white-knuckle attached’ to using a paper
calendar and absolutely resisting using technology…it might finally be time to do things
differently.

Or you don’t want to make appointments with prospects you haven’t closed, preferring to follow
up in 2 days, because you think appointments are too pushy. Look at what it cost you in time and effectiveness.

C…

Read more…

Less of...

Yes, it is possible to do LESS of something!

It seems counter-intuitive to look at what we might do less of following a blog that focused on
MORE!

Maybe we could have talked less or talked less about things that were unimportant to the buyer
and only important to us. Or have spent less time on an interaction that was ineffective
(combine that with talking too much – ouch). Or we might have spent less time on non-sales
actions that kept sales actions from happening.

Or brought less resista…

Read more…

Don’t Let Up Until You Finish

You are almost there. It’s almost over. 

Stay with the process and keep at it until you have crossed the finish line…and resist the temptation to lighten up as the end nears.

This is when others will give up…they will say ‘it’s close enough’…or that making goal is overrated…or some other disempowering belief that makes giving up seem reasonable. You might have done that in the past, too. But this is a new reality, and you are building a new set of skills that will serve you to consistently…

Read more…

PerformNow and One by One

If you are a regular reader, you know that I have a commitment to sales managers and how they effectively execute their job and elevate their team performance. My “Sell it or Schedule it” has a sales manager training component and I easily spend as much time training and coaching sales managers as I spend training and coaching salespeople.

It’s with that commitment that I have joined forces with David and Wayne McMahon and their PerformNow Sales Manager Performance Groups. There are…

Read more…

Structures and Support

“I don’t write goals, but I have them in my head.”  What??
If you’ve heard yourself say that, challenge its efficacy: DID you really achieve the goal? Did you even have one? Or is that something you say to avoid the responsibility of making a commitment and then taking the actions to achieve the goal? 

Some facts about goals: 

  1. You need to write them down. The action of thinking it through and articulating what you want is powerful and part of the process.
  2. Put your goals somewhere that yo…

Read more…

Identifying Pitfalls and Traps

Are you good for the first three days into a new initiative and then start to slip?
When do you stop doing the actions that you committed to?
Do you start to tell yourself: “It’s not that bad” or “It’s not that important?”

Rather than avoiding these natural tendencies, include them in your goals. Consider them BEFORE they happen so that when they pop up, you will be prepared for them.

For example, if you know that you start the month strong, make your first week goals and miss your thi…

Read more…

GRATEFUL QUESTIONING

How can we bring gratitude to questioning? When do we need it the most?

Let’s look at where questions start. Are they coming from a place of interest and helpfulness?

Are the questions originating from compassion and a desire to understand?

Are the questions courageous (tough to ask but we know we must) and considerate (asked in a
way that is respectful and kind)?

When a sales interaction is successful (in that it produced a sale or an appointment), take a moment to present and to be gratef…

Read more…

Categories