Salespeople are always thinking about their immediate goals, or at least they better be if they expect to remain in sales. Here’s the piece we tend to forget, what are your 3-year goals?
Yes, I know the basic rule that says if you don’t make this year’s goals, there’s no need to even be thinking about the following year’s goals. That is true and I do believe it; however, I also firmly believe we have to take a longer-term approach to our profession. Looking longer-term allows us to begin to see ourselves in a different light and ask ourselves the following questions:
What is my industry going to look like?
What is my business going to look like?
What are my current customers going to look like?
Where will my new customers come from?
What is my competition going to look like?
How could the business environment or government changes impact my business?
What are other outside factors that could change?
What skills do I need to improve upon?
What do I need to learn?
What big goals could I accomplish in 3 years if I began working on them now?
These questions are not a perfect list but they’re designed to get you thinking about what you do. I’ve always contended too many times the results that occur are merely the outcomes of failing to look far enough ahead and preparing adequately.
In my own business, we keep a very tight set of yearly goals, but when we construct each year’s goals, we construct them in the context of our longer-term 3-year goals. By looking at them in this light, we’re able to better use our resources in how we sell. This ultimately allows us to be better equipped to achieve our current year’s goals.
Copyright 2010, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
