New Year, New Selling Calendar

Tomorrow will be the first day of the new year and a brand new start to your selling calendar.

A great advantage of being in sales is regularly getting a new start. Whether it be on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis, our numbers reset back to zero and we go at it all over again. When are selling period ends and starts over, it gives us an opportunity to evaluate our past performance and how we can improve it. Reflection on performance, both accomplishments and short falls should be examined in order to focus the improvement of our selling skills.

Write down your short falls and areas where you can improve. Seek out the help and guidance of sales managers, sales directors, or sales coaches to evaluate what and how needs tweaking in your selling style. Seasoned sales people often overlook sales training and sales education because they believe they have nothing to learn. All the best sales people I have met are always willing to learn new sales ideas and strategies to increase their numbers. The game of sales is ever changing, and to be successful at it we must adapt to the changes in order to not fall behind.

Pick one or two of the best sales people in your organization and shadow them, taking notes on what works for them. Sales people aren't born great sales people, they are taught over time, techniques and strategies that allow them to succeed more than they fail.

All sales people fail on a certain level because nobody has a 100% close ratio and therefore losses deals. Our Type A personalities tells us to forget about the losses and move to the next prospect. Great sales people also control their negative feelings and don't take anything a prospect or customer says personally, it's just a numbers game. The more people we see the more deals we'll close. A good sales person wants to hear the nos, that means they are one step closer to hearing yes.

To increase your success, develop a sales plan for the year. Include your sales goals broken down monthly, quarterly, and yearly. This will allow you to monitor your progress closely. Sales people who write down there goals are significantly more successful than those who don't. Developing a written sales plan also forces ownership and accountability of their business and success, as well as help the rep examine what has worked and what hasn't. Having each sales rep present their sales plan to their peers will also encourage motivation and communication on best practices.

Happy New Year and a great start in 2013!

Best of Luck.

Richard