Goal: The object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.
This time of year, you just can’t escape talk of goals and resolutions. December 31 rolls around and suddenly, as sales professionals or small business owners, we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves, both personally and professionally, to do better in the new year.
Let’s face it: Goal setting can be overwhelming, especially with the added pressure of the start of the new year. We end up choosing lofty goals for ourselves and our businesses, only to lose focus early on. Do you remember all the goals or resolutions you set last year at this time?
Instead of focusing on the end goal, instead focus on changing your behavior. Our advice is to follow these three simple words as you approach sales goal setting for 2017:
Keep. What worked in 2016? Perhaps you implemented and used new lead management software, or you set aside a few hours every Tuesday morning to read industry publications. Resolve to continue to do this one thing in 2017.
Fix. Spend some time analyzing your behaviors during the past year and challenge yourself to identify one troublesome area that you can improve. Did you lose leads because of poor response time? Could some of your prospecting calls been more effective had you practiced your 30-second commercial? Choose one area of improvement for 2017 and stick with it.
Stop. This is the time to be unabashedly honest with yourself. What is one thing you are doing that just isn’t working? Maybe you are continuing to spend time preparing e-mail newsletters that aren’t showing you any return on investment. Maybe you are failing to track your activities in a CRM like you know you should be. What is one thing you can stop doing in 2017?
Start small by choosing just one item to keep, one to fix and one to stop in the New Year and see how your behaviors shift and improve. Good luck with your 2017 goal setting!
