
New Year’s resolutions are worthless without the actions to take to achieve the goals. Become the top salesperson? Double your sales? Lose 10 pounds? The first two I can help you with since I write about sales. Even weight loss is about the actions you need to take. Why not this year focus on actually doing these actions so you can have a successful selling year? Here’s where you can start.
Stop kidding yourself.
You need to work on business that is likely to result in a sale whether you want to become the top salesperson at your company or double your sales. What that means is that you can’t waste your time on business that is unlikely to close this year. Your work on prospecting and selling must be focused. Who should you focus on? A and B accounts.
I’ve said it many times. Your job is to prioritize your accounts and spend most of your time on the most important accounts. Define the criteria for your business. You might consider location, revenue, numbers of employees. It doesn’t matter what you select just as long as you can clearly define the type of business you need to sell to make your sales goals.
You are clear about who you should be calling on when you define an A account as one with specific revenue, numbers of employees who buys a specific amount of product and has been in business at least 5 years. That way you recognize that a C account is not an A account. Here’s the most important part for you to reach your sales goals because you don’t waste time. You are not going to spend the time allocated to your A accounts on a C account!
Protect yourself.
It is important for sales success to be optimistic and positive. One of the biggest drains on your attitude are people who are toxic. These people shout at others. They talk behind other people’s backs. They don’t do the work they promise to do or are simply incompetent. The action you take this year will be to stay away from toxic people.
What do you do if you have to work with them? Here’s what you can do. Don’t take the bait.
I have seen the impact of toxic people from my work in sales and my volunteer work over the years. They say or do things that result in an emotional response. It’s that emotional response that starts the downward trajectory of bad results. Nothing good comes from a nasty argument, personal attack or other hostile dialogue.
Your job this year is to notice when the action causes you to respond. When you pay attention to your response you can stop it and instead realize that you won’t take the bait. A neutral response to a criticism that doesn’t deserve a response from you is, “Thanks for letting me know.” That’s it. Move on.
Not taking the bait will be hard. Just remember, the result will be far better for you when you don’t take the bait. Not engaging a toxic person causes them to go elsewhere for a response. That’s what you want. You are not to waste your time or energy on someone who brings you down.
So this year be clear about the actions you are taking to be successful in sales. These actions will contribute to your sales success. As for weight loss, I’ve heard that exercise might help. Maybe you could park your car farther from your customers’ entrance and walk a little more? Either way, best wishes for your sales success this year!