The Plan?

Is this the way to plan your sales for 2010? From Jeff Garrison:

Sales Goal Setting

Posted: 19 Nov 2009 12:04 PM PST

My approach to goal setting may be a bit different than most and I am sure to get emails and comments.

Start by Setting Low Goals!

This is especially effective if you are a business owner trying to fit business development in to your everyday chaos.

Follow This Plan

First of all, you can only control activity, not outcomes. So don't plan outcomes. For example, don't plan to "schedule a meeting" with a client, plan to "call them for an appointment".

Identify the daily sales activities that you must do on a daily basis to succeed. (Email me for a free list if your are not sure where to start.) For tomorrow, make a plan that includes these activities, but make the level of activity so low you can't fail to complete the plan. When you execute your plan, give yourself an appropriate reward. (I crack open a Guinness.)

After a few days, increase the amount of activity that you plan by a little bit. Get it done and reward yourself.

Over time, keep increasing the amount of activity until you discover a your daily maximum.

Here are the reasons I suggest this plan of action.

You Need to Build Planning Muscles.

If the failure to plan is not the number one reason that sales people fail, it is at least in the top two or three. If you don't plan and schedule your sales activity each day, then eventually you will fail. On the flip side, if you plan too much and don't execute them, you also fail. Either way, planning is not working for you!

This method helps you to establish the habit of planning. You also learn the skill of making a realistic plan based upon the amount of time that you have. Some days you will know going in that you have less time than other days for sales activity and you can plan appropriately.

Note that it should be the rare exception that you don't plan at least a bit of business development activity every day. Just like going to the gym once every week or two won't get you in great shape, inconsistent sales activity barely gets any results.

You Need to Build Execution Muscles

Lots of business owners and sales people tell me they plan, but when I look at their plans, I see a lot of activity on today's plan carried over from yesterday. They have no idea what is realistic because their plan is really just a giant to do list.

Finish your daily plan daily! By the way, the last activity on the daily plan ought to be to plan for tomorrow.

You Need to Build Positive Associations with Planning and Execution

I don't care how easy your plan is to accomplish. If you plan five days in a row and execute the plan every day, you will have done something that only a small percentage of business owners and sales people have ever done.

You should feel great about yourself!

You Need to Build Your Confidence in Planning and Execution

Keep planning and executing every day and you will quickly start to see consistent results in terms of business development and sales. After three months to six months, planning will be as habitual as brushing your teeth. If you realize you forgot to plan, you may feel compelled to get out of bed to make your plan.

Finally, You Will Have Build a Pattern of Successful Planning and Execution

You may be thinking you don't have time to set low goals. "Low" is subjective. Just don't set daily activity goals that you will fail to execute more than 10% of the time.

You may be thinking that you can't afford to wait for your sales people to build their muscles. Wrong, you can't afford to have them setting themselves up for failure most days. Following this plan will foster the development of sales people that are far more effective, reliable, and happier than those of your competitors.

Tell me your thoughts. Is this crazy or might it just work?

Do you have a daily sales plan?

Managing Sales Activity for Success

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