It's true, most sales professionals have had another tough year, and as I have already discussed in recent posts (and there is no need to labor the point) around 50% of them will miss quota in 2010. That's one in two; half the sales team ... Ok, I need to labor it just a little, because it really is significant!
Everyone will be doing all they can - at least all they think they can - to finish Q4 strongly.
Meanwhile, for the very best, it is that time of year when they will also be focusing on what they want to achieve next year.
Unfortunately, most people, and I would estimate 80%, because Pareto's principle is always pretty accurate, will not set objectives and in failing to plan will in effect, be planning to fail - again in 2011
The greatest difficulty most people have is knowing where to begin, so here are some thoughts that will hopefully assist you in constructing an achievable plan for the next twelve months and beyond.
You have to set yourself goals, become goal orientated and a goal achiever - otherwise you will drift through life like a ship without a rudder hoping to be swept into a "harbor of opportunity"
The reality is that without a rudder, you are more likely to end up on the rocks and in later life look back in frustration: "I could have" "If only I had" etc, but by then it will be too late.
Do You Have A Life Map? - If Not, Think Of the Pilot:
Before a pilot takes off he knows the distance and the payload; he has assessed the weather conditions at departure and arrival points and he has contingency plans should those conditions dramatically change in any way.
He is the manager of his crew, he is prepared at all times for the unexpected and he is capable of making instant decisions. He is also able to psychologically accept the mundane
What Have You Been In The Past? Making an Honest Appraisal:
The objective of appraising your past performance, whether that is last year or your entire life is to improve and capitalize on your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses or limitations. Completing a SLOT analysis regularly will help you enormously.
What you have been in the past can only have two influences on the present - positive or negative.
I believe that successful people have invisible plastic wings on their shoulders and this prevents them continually looking back: They only take good experiences forward with them, casting off disappointments, errors of judgment and unhappy times.
Negative people on the other hand, do look back over their shoulder often and carry all the bad experiences forward with them in a large sack on their back. They expect the future to be very much the same as the past and it usually is - this is of course, the "Phenomenon of Fulfilled Expectation"
And yet ask a group of divorcees who have since re-married, if they are happier now with their new partners and you can be sure that they will be.
Ask anyone who has gone through the stressful experience of redundancy and then found another job, if they are not now happier and more secure - they will be.
So you see, the future really is better than the past if we choose to make it so; we have to attack the future fearlessly to achieve a better tomorrow.
PS: Have you been round the World recently? What a tour!