Make the Most of Today

How are you going to make the most of your time this year? Many top performing salespeople and sales leaders will create plans -business plans or personal plans filled with lofty goals and ambitious achievements. These plans are great, especially when we follow them and realize our goals. This is not easy, so here are a few keys to remember when conducting your planning...

• "Happy people plan actions, they don't plan results." -Dennis Wholey. It's great to talk about the end zone and set a goal to achieve a certain result, but the result is not controllable and something you can plan into your life or schedule. The action is controllable and is something you can plan. For example, you may have a business goal to increase referral business by 20% this year or a personal goal to lose 15 pounds. The controllable actions that may be associated with these targets may be to call 5 clients per week to ask for referrals or to jog 3 mornings per week. Like the quote above explains, we can all be happier when we are focused on actions that we have control over.
• Share your goals with people that care about you. Choose a family member, friend, or co-worker and tell him or her about your business plans, goals and activity commitments. Tell them what they can do to help hold you accountable. In the end it's up to you, but most of us benefit from a little extra peer accountability. Many top performing sales leaders conduct sales team meetings early in the year at which each team member gives a short business plan presentation to the rest of the team. Also, remember top performers review and update their plans on a monthly or weekly basis. Planning is a process, not a yearly event.