December Newsletter- STEP TWO: Implementing your PlanNow that you have your plan in place (Click Here to read Step One if you haven’t read it yet), we have to talk about implementation…putting it into action. You may be asking yourself “why am I starting to work on my January action items now?” The simple answer for most sales people is that what you do this month greatly impacts your income in January, and not necessarily how you will finish out the year, income wise. Pull out your plan, and let’s get to work. Take a look at your action items…the sales activities you committed to in #3 of November’s Newsletter. Let’s take an example and follow it through:
EX: Call 2 new prospects and ask for a meeting-weekly (Now your action might be way more aggressive, say perhaps you need to call 20, 30 or even 100 prospects a week. It all depends on your organization and what is needed in order to make your goals.)
If you are like many of the people I have coached over the years, you will come up with every excuse in the book NOT to make these calls. There will always be a pressing client issue, an internal need, or something more fun to do than to cold call, we get it. Our advice to you…do it today! Yep, the minute you finish reading this newsletter MAKE THOSE CALLS! (Finish the newsletter for sure though!) On any given day, doing the thing you dread the most FIRST will always set you up for a productive day. Otherwise, you find yourself procrastinating until you can talk yourself into the fact that it’s too late, you’ll do it tomorrow. Nike had a point when they said “Just Do It!”
If you are thinking “what do I say?” you may be new in your role. For starters, ask for what you want. Tell them who you are and why they should care and then ask for a meeting. We know,scary stuff. But you can do it. And if you aren’t new in your role and haven’t’ been fired yet for lack of production, you know how to get an appointment. But knowing what to say isn’t likely your problem, picking the phone up and prospecting is probably the hurdle you need to overcome. So DO IT TODAY!
Of course this isn’t the only thing on you TO DO list…you have other sales activities/actions on there too, right? What about asking for referrals-get on the phone! Make daily goals for the number of times you ask for a referral. This one has to be in your radar though. In my experience, when sales people tell me they didn’t get any referrals in a week or month, it’s not because they asked and didn’t get any, it’s because they failed to ask in the first place. It wasn’t in their daily radar. And those presentations? If you want to deliver 2 presentations a month, you need to be asking when and where you can give these-so have you been making connections to get an opportunity to present?Here’s an idea you can put to use today…tis the season and you will most likely be attending a bunch of holiday gatherings and seeing a lot of customers as well as prospects. Why not ask for the opportunity over a glass of eggnog (virgin of course, you are still working)!
While you are out spreading holiday cheer, remember to SELL! You will be in front of people and rather than wait until the New Year, why not ask them for an appointment NOW? Go through each item on your list and make sure that you are hitting your due dates. If you are already seeing that you are falling behind, enlist some help. Hire a coach (we are available!) enlist a co-worker to help hold you accountable, ask a manager to help. Just get back on track before the year starts! Trust us on this one…you do not want to have to jumpstart in January.
Start working on your plan today and in January we’ll talk about finalizing the plan for the New Year!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Grow Big or Go Home!