Guest post Monday brings us a great post from Dave Kahle, author of How To Sale Anything to Anyone. Kahle is a sales trainer and consultant, having trained thousands of people to thrive in today’s economy.

It is easy to think your goal with an RFP should be to get the sale. But your first goal should simply be to get a meeting.

This is the time of year when everyone starts coming out with their predictions for what 2011 is going to be like. Here’s the problem I have with this: Who holds these people accountable for the wild comments they make?

I’m tired of hearing people complain about how the economy is lousy and they can’t get anything going and their sales motivation has taken a dive. As a motivational sales speaker and trainer, I refuse to believe it. I firmly believe that tough times create the best opportunities.

How are you doing on reaching your 2010 sales goals? How are your results this year going to impact your 2011 goals? I’m a firm believer in having what I refer to as “personal sales development goals.” These are goals you set to help you grow both personally and professionally, not just to help you in the immediate year but more importantly to help you achieve a higher results in each subsequent year.