- January 21, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As the year comes to an end, what should professionals in the sales organization be focused on? In my experience there are certain things that get a lot of attention and certain things that don’t. Let’s discuss both.
At the top of the list of things that most sales executives and professionals don’t need to be reminded about are closing year-end business, getting their holiday shopping completed and setting goals for next year. So obvious. But what should be on your December list that doesn’t get enough attention?
- Fill your pipeline for January – December is a great time for that! At your current win rate, and with your average order, deal or account size, how many new opportunities must be added to your pipeline in order to hit your nut? Read in more detail here.
- Honest review of the past 12 months including the obvious performance to goals but go deeper than that. Here are 10 questions you can ask yourself:
- Did you truly do everything required or did you get lucky? Were there 1 or 2 big deals or accounts that put you over the top and without them far short of the number?
- Were you unlucky? Were there a couple of deals or accounts that you should have closed but didn’t and with them you would have hit your number?
- Did you create your own luck?
- Were there enough opportunities in your pipeline for the entire 12 months to even make it possible to achieve your goals?
- Were you persistent enough? Knowing that it takes 8-15 attempts to reach a decision maker, did you give up after 4 attempts?
- Were you strong enough? Were you able to overcome resistance, objections, stalls and put-offs to achieve the velocity required to succeed?
- Were you skilled enough? Did you have at your command the ideal questions, statements, messages, responses, tactics and strategies to be effective at every turn?
- Did you have a sales process that you followed and could depend upon? Read in more detail here.
- How capable are you in all 21 Sales Core Competencies? Rate yourself. Read more detail here.
- How did your performance compare with others in your company, your industry, your country?
- Growth Plan for the next 12 months – based on your answers to the 10 questions above, where must you improve and what should you do differently? Be specific.
- Sales Plan for the next 12 months – what will be required for you to exceed your number for next year. Be specific. Break it down by month, by week, by day, and if you need to, by the hour.
- Everyone needs coaching. Is there someone in your company that has the ability to coach you up? If not, are you willing to invest in someone from outside your company that can coach you up?
- Are there any sales tools you can add to your toolbox to make you more effective or efficient? Read these articles:
- Hit List for the next 12 months – Who (from your target profile of ideal customers or clients) do you want to close in the next 12 months? Who can introduce you to the right people?
- Are you willing to leverage the power of CRM and use it the right way and live in it for the next 12 months? Read more detail here.
- Will you maximize your selling time over the next 12 months instead of doing administrative work during selling time? Read more detail here.
Success in Sales is much closer to success in sports than it is success in business. In most business roles, if you do your job well you will succeed and nobody will attempt to stop that. As with sports, you must be able to overcome adversity. Some of the things that can get in the way are lack of practice and preparation, personal mental barriers, competition that lies, prospects who won’t share, sales managers that won’t coach or can’t do it effectively, products that aren’t in demand, companies that don’t support their sales organization and much more.
The challenge is to overcome adversity and focus on being the best. Can you become your best possible sales self next year?
