What are your goals for next year? Here’s a list of 10 questions you and every salesperson needs to answer if you want to make 2020 the best year it can be. First, watch my video with all the details.
1. How can you add more time to each day without taking more time out of it? Your goal is to determine activities you’re engaged in that are not highly productive. It might be the 20 minutes you spend checking your social media account or the 15 minutes you spend talking sports. Let’s get serious here- there are things you do everyday that you don’t have to do. If you made just 20 minutes each day more productive, that would equate to 80 hours in a whole year. Think about the possibilities if you had an extra two whole weeks!
2. Which 5 customers have you not fully maximized your help towards? Take a moment and dig into your customer list to identify the 5 customers you’re already working with that could easily double or triple the business they’re doing with you now. If these 5 customers currently represent just 10% of your total business, your ability to grow them by 2 or 3x means a 20 to 30% increase for you!
3. What one product or service do you sell that you don’t understand as well as you maybe should? Yes, your lack of knowledge might actually be hurting you. Why? Because if you don’t know, your customers don’t know. If this one product represented 5% of your total sales, you could increase your sales by another 5% by just doubling your sales.
4. Which 5 customers do you need to spend less time with? I’m sure you have them. Yes, you have those customers who, for one reason or another, take up your time – intentionally or unintentionally. The time you spend with them each week is time that’s keeping you away from prospecting and other activities that will generate more revenue. My guess is that you can cut the amount of time you spend with them but still do the same volume. If you free up just one hour per week, in less than a year you will add an extra 40-hour week to your year.
5. What do you need to do to up-sell more on every order? Don’t think for a moment that you’re maximizing every order. Your ability to up-sell comes down to your ability to listen better. The better you listen, the more needs you are able to fill. If you could increase your average sale by 5%, you’ll sell 5% more in the same amount of time.
6. Who are the subject matter experts you need to learn from? The fastest way to learn is by teaming up with those who know more. Take a look at who you’re spending time and recalibrate. There are those people you need to dial down to allow you to dial up and more deeply connect with others. Learning doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s easy to learn when you surround yourself with smart people.
7. How frequently are you assessing the job you’re doing? Don’t wait until the end of the quarter to determine how your quarter went. Set aside 20 minutes each week to assess your performance and don’t hold back on your personal critique. Settling for average will never get you in the President’s Club or on the trip to Hawaii. It’s a lazy way to think that it’s other people’s job to evaluate your performance. Take control of yourself! That’s how you get to Hawaii!
8. Bring your boss to work with you. Yes, you read that right – bring your boss to work with you. This means having them participate in your sales calls. Your boss will hear things you don’t as well as ask questions that you haven’t thought of. Most of all, by getting your boss on your personal sales team, you’ll have another set of arms and legs to help you not just make your number, but blow past your number.
9. Build your sales plan to make it possible to go past your number by at least 20%, and do that in 11 months. If you build your plan to just make your number, you will fall short because something unexpected will happen. This shouldn’t be a shock to you, since you’re dealing with customers. People always do things differently than you expect. Notice that you should also build your plan based off an 11-month calendar – that gives you another cushion. We all know that strange things – both good and bad – can happen at the end of the year. It’s unpredictable; that’s why we can’t count on it.
10. Build your “moon shot” goal and plan. What’s a “moon shot” goal? It’s simply something outlandish and crazy, just like thinking you’re going to the moon, and that’s the point! You want it to be crazy and big, because pushing for something massive will still pay out even if you fall short. Your “moon shot” is the goal that will drive you to do things you never thought possible and along the way, you’ll see a wide number of other opportunities. If you want to win big, you have to start thinking and acting big.
There you go! Those are the 10 questions to ask yourself this New Year. 2020 is your year to achieve greatness! What are you waiting for? Let’s do this together! I’m taking the time to dig into all 10 of these, and now it’s your turn.
Oh, and by the way, are you having a sales kickoff meeting? If so, we need to talk. I still have some open days in my calendar, and I would love to work with you. Call me at 402-445-2110, and let’s ensure 2020 is the best year yet. Let’s make it happen!
Copyright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result
