
The new year is right around the corner, and whether you believe in New Year resolutions or not, I hope you’ll start the new year with the attitude to make the new year your best year yet.
I’m sick of people saying they don’t believe in ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ because you need to commit to getting better all the time. And it would be great if you could actually do that. But I guarantee that most people who take the anti-New Year’s resolution stance use it as an excuse not to do anything differently or better.
Let’s face it: a new year is an easy-to-remember milestone. If on December 31st, you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to lose 5kg in 3 months, and on March 31st, you still weigh the same amount, it’s just easy math to know you didn’t reach your target.
Now, I’m not saying you need to declare your New Year’s resolution, which is to double your income in the new year with no clear path to it, because, as we all know, this only sets you up for failure.
Instead, I would like to see you set aside a few hours or a few days to get crystal clear about what you want to accomplish in the new year. Start with that big scary goal, then, more importantly, figure out what you will do to make that happen.
Break that goal into monthly and weekly action plans, moving you towards your larger goal.
If you’re in sales and want to increase your commissions by 50%, start by figuring out what needs to happen to reach that.
Do you need to learn how to do something better, build more relationships or partnerships, increase your sales, and repeat business, or do you need all of the above?
Whatever it’s going to take, be clear on what needs to happen to reach your goal, and break it down into monthly or weekly goals so each month you’re working on doing 1 thing better instead of trying to reach your goal without a manageable plan.
Elaine and I like to develop a theme for the year that all our goals revolve around. Some of our themes in the past have included ‘brand,’ ‘processes,’ and ‘people.’ We then develop 2-3 major goals around the theme before breaking it down into monthly goals, which get put into our calendar so we’re always clear about what we’re working towards.
The hardest and most important part of this is reviewing weekly how you’re progressing towards your goals. It’s very easy to get distracted by what’s happening in front of you, the urgent issues on hand, and the fact that you lose sight of the bigger, harder-to-achieve goals.
But not you, not this year. My hope for you is that you will set aside the time to plan, document, and implement your goals in the new year, and on December 31st, I want to hear what you did to achieve your goals.
Whether you believe you will fail or succeed – you’re right.
The secret to success in sales starts with having the right mindset.
You need to learn how to stay motivated when the economy slows down, when customers say no and when things aren’t going their way.
Often, a strong sense of internal motivation separates the top performers from the underachievers, which is why we consider mindset to be the foundation of sales excellence.
In this course, Mindset For Sales Success, we cover everything from common pitfalls to avoid when managing remote teams to effective communication and remote teams and methods of keeping staff motivated while working from home.