“The most powerful future plan you can have, is be prepared for the unexpected, the unplanned, the uncomfortable, and the things that inconvenience you.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1698
Do you set a clearly defined goals for 2024?
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1697: [Top Tips of 2023] The ABC’s of Sales – YES – Meshell Baker
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Hopefully, you heard the conclusion of our top 2023 tips countdown yesterday with Meshell Baker’s #1 tip of the year. Here she is again to help us start the year right and once again start every week right every Monday this year:
Meshell Baker: Hello. Today, we’re going to talk about reflection to amplify your projections for 2024. Successful sellers, successful leaders actually take time to look at what went well and what did not work. So it’s never that it went wrong or it was bad. It’s just that how can I take that experience and use it and utilize it to leverage and expand opportunities for the forthcoming year?
So the first thing you’re going to do is set aside time on your calendar, block the time, uninterrupted time to reflect on interactions, so your sales interactions. This is not limited to your clients and your customers. This is also your colleagues and your supervisors and managers. You want to list out the Top 3 interactions in leadership that you had with people or the Top 10 interactions in your clients. What were the best clients, the ones that you got excited about and really challenge you to expand? Then also look at the most difficult interactions that you had with clients and colleagues because these are opportunities to see where the common thread is. What is the theme of what makes this difficult? And what is the theme of makes this amazing? So that you can either improve upon and change the difficult, and then you can amplify and expand the things that were amazing.
Number two, set clearly defined goals. So the SMART goal still works here. That’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timable. This will help you to move forward consistently. And then once you get those goals set out, put them on your calendar, have accountability that you’re following up with. And when you find yourself falling behind, it will let you know that you immediately need to go seek guidance and support.
Number three, analyze your strategy. Look at what the tactics that you’ve been using. Identify where the things that didn’t go well, especially because this is an opportunity for learning. So that would be number four.
So again, identify the strategies that are working or not working, and then you can go into number four, and this is identify the areas for improvement. So things that aren’t working are things that you want to get mastery around. This is where you invest in your time. So looking at you don’t have to do all the things all the time. Look at possibly taking a class every quarter. Look at your organization that you’re working with. Do they have reimbursement? Do they have matching funds? A lot of companies have funds to help sellers to improve their skills that people never tap into. This is defining how you’re going to improve next year.
Remember, in order for you to have a greater outcome, it means that you need input, and that input is you investing in you. So what are the areas and the opportunities for your improvement?
Number five. Plan for the future. This is reflecting on where you’re going to implement and boost. Have a clearly set up on your calendar next year, have your accountability. Have this set up with your supervisor or whoever you’re reporting into so that your future is clear and you know the structure and you’re anticipating and looking at it. It doesn’t come as a surprise when things don’t work well. And also plan for the future for when you hit the hard points. Who are your go-to people when things don’t go as planned? To me, that is the most powerful future plan you can have, is be prepared for the unexpected, the unplanned, the uncomfortable, and the things that inconvenience you. Where do you go so you can get your mindset back focused that despite the circumstances, there’s always an opportunity to succeed.
Number six is maintain consistent reflection. So many people do this year in. This is something that is encouraged on a quarterly, monthly, weekly basis. It does not have to take long. Is that end of the week, looking at what you close, how you’re moving deals through the pipeline? At the end of the month, how are you moving forward in that quarter so that you can ensure that you hit that year in target? And at that quarter, again, how are you moving quarterly so that you’re able to hit the year in target? These are things that when done with other people who are like-minded, who are driven, who are focused on success, you will amplify each other. Statistics show that people who are high drive will get together with other high drive people. You can upwardsble your outcomes and your impact versus when you work with someone who has no drive, it will actually drain you. So put a plan in place, reflection to amplify your projection and have a great day selling.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell and to her top tips of 2023, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1698. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!