Execute Sales People!

That is a scary thought!  Execute sales people!  It reminds me of the old movies in which the king would cry out, “Off with his head!”  The next sound you would hear would be the “swoosh” of a sword or ax.  Fortunately in those old movies, you did not have the visual confirmation of the beheading that seems to be prevalent in today’s films.

In our case of course, we are referring to the turning of our intentions into realities by the process of execution.  In yesterday’s post, we discussed the book, The Four Disciplines of Execution and some of the challenges that block us from implementing our strategies.

Today, let’s discuss what we as sales people can do that will have an impact on our ability to execute the strategies that will achieve the goals we want for our families and our careers.

Set Your Goals:

As a sales professional, your goals should be YOUR goals – not the goals of your organization or your sales leader.  Please don’t misunderstand.  You are an integral part of the success of your organization and your loyalty and contribution to that team is imperative.  However, if your personal sales goals are based on a “minimum standard” set by your organization – you will never achieve great success.  Instead you will only achieve “get-by” results.  Although those results may protect your job, they are never going to achieve the lifestyle you want for your family?  Set your family goals first, then set a sales goal that will yield the income you want to support the life you choose to live.

Limit The Number of Goals You Set:

There is an economic principle called “The Law of Diminishing Returns” that says basically this: if all factors remain equal – adding one of more additional factors may actually reduce the results.  The more factors that are added, the less effective the results will be.  In goal setting, your are much more effective if you narrow your goals down to between 1 and 3 goals.

Focus Segments of Your Time On The Specific Activities That Achieve Your Goals:

The greater the amount of time you can spend on the specific actions that will achieve the results and generate your income – the more likely you will hit your goals.  So when you pick the 1-3 goals that you need to achieve in order to provide for your family – block calendar time of 2-3 hours per day that you are doing the specific activities that will lead to the accomplishment of those goals.  If you can devote more time, do so.  But start with dedicating a minimum of 2-3 hours per day.  In the beginning, you may find it difficult to block the distractions that keep you from spending that time on ONLY the specific activities that lead to your results.  But stick to it.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate:

Narrow your goals.  Then pick a small number of strategies to implement that will hit the goals.  Pick 1-3 parts of that strategy to take action on now.  Block the time in your calendar to do so.  Then delegate as much of the daily details as possible.  If you can generate $1,000 per hour in commissions by closing sales – why the heck are you doing detail work that you could hire a sharp college student to do for $12.00 per hour?

Tomorrow we will talk about ways that sales leaders can bring out the best in execution in their teams.

QUESTION:

How much time do you spend each week on the three most important actions you need to do in order to achieve your income goals?