How was your 2012?
What I find interesting is how different 2012 turned out than the way it was planned. This is what makes life and business so interesting.
I’m a firm believer in planning things out and establishing goals.
For those of us in sales, planning and goal setting are essential skills, but I’ll go beyond just sales and say both of these skills are a must for everyone.
Challenge is as much as we plan and as much as we work our plan, things can and will go in different directions. This is not to say our plans were bad and it’s not to say we shouldn’t plan. What I believe is because we take the time to plan, we have the ability to make adjustments as opportunities arise.
Some people would say because we don’t know what opportunities are going to arise, there is no need to develop a plan and we should just react as things occur. I’m not a subscriber to that, because what that is saying is the success you expect will be no greater than what opportunities drop into your lap.
I believe in not just taking advantage of opportunities that arise, but also in creating opportunities.
We maximize the number of opportunities when we have a plan that allows us to have flexibility to seize on things as they occur, as well as focus on seeking new opportunities.
As you look back on the year, were the opportunities you took advantage of planned or were they ones that merely popped up?
Don’t be hard on yourself if the best opportunities of the year were those that popped up and weren’t planned.
Be thankful for them, and as you look at the year ahead, ask yourself how you can not only capitalize more on what has already opened up but also position yourself to be ready for more of them next year.
Most of all, let’s all enter the new year with thankfulness for the year completed, regardless of what may or may not have happened. Let’s grasp a positive anticipation for the year to come!
Here’s to great selling!
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
