- You Need A Plan. Your plan needs to help you;
Get New Business
Retain and WOW Existing Business
Grow Existing Business
That plan needs to contain a thorough communication plan that includes a Mix Of Sales Activities.
That plan also needs to include time, set aside for you to learn how to get better at those 3 things. I mean, if those three things make or break you, why wouldn’t you take them serious enough to continually hone those skills?
That plan needs to excite you enough . . . To actually do it!
Your plan also needs to have protocols for managing the things that get in the way of you working that plan.
Time Out: Most reps DON’T have a plan to manage things that get in the way of working their plan and end up in a continual state of RESPONDING instead of forging ahead. Quite frankly, its a sh*tty feeling because most of us in sales like to be in control. None of us feel like we’re in control when we’re ALWAYS responding!
And you need to be serious enough to . . .
2) Get It On Your Schedule: I’m going to bottom line this one for you by saying;
A plan that isn’t scheduled isn’t a plan, it’s a prayer
You schedule your activities so that you keep up appearances and create the nearness, closeness and kinship with your prospects/clients that is referred to as “propinquity”.
Just like in any relationship, you can’t build propinquity if you’re here, hot and heavy for a few weeks, then gone for 3 months without contact, back for a few days, then gone for 6 weeks.
If you’re like most sales reps, that’s exactly what you’re doing now and it’s killing your results!
3) Respect and Flexibility: If you had an appointment at 9:30 am on Wednesday, with a potential client or a client, would you allow anything that presented itself to force you to break that appointment? Of course you wouldn’t! That would be disrespectful!
Then why would you allow everyone else to have respect except yourself? I mean, if you’re going to just cancel those calls you were going to make at 3:00 on Monday because something non urgent came up, you’re disrespecting yourself.
Respect what you commit to and if you absolutely MUST cancel an appointment with yourself to grow your business, then you have to be a grown up about it and;
Have the flexibility and dedication to reschedule the activity.
For example . . .
Last week, I had some time blocked out on Thursday for prospecting. Wednesday evening, one of my clients emailed me asking if they could schedule an urgent coaching call. I could tell by the tone of the email that something was up but, they were in airports and the time they were able to speak with me conflicted with my prospecting time.
I guess I could have been an ass about it and said “Sorry, I gotta thing” and then remained true to my prospecting commitment. Instead, I scheduled the coaching call and rescheduled my prospecting for this Tuesday after a webinar I’m doing.
Time Out: This is why I said that we have to be “grown ups” about rescheduling. Most people would use the “fire” that popped up as an excuse NOT to prospect. Fires don’t let you off the hook. We need to stop treating them like we’re in fourth grade and have test, but the test gets canceled because we have a substitute teacher that day. Which reminds me, how many of you ever wrote “Dick Hurtz” on the attendance sheet?
4) More Flexibility You have to continually modify your plan. Business moves at the speed of light and you need to keep up.
For example, there was a time (up until 2008) where I believed in a high volume of cold calls (300 per week for outside sales reps)
I realized that this wasn’t working anymore and modified my plan to a “less calls but more targeted” model.
Shortly thereafter, I began to notice this awesome thing called “Social Networking” and added that to my plan.
Fast forward 8 years later, there are some social channels where I just don’t have the momentum, and being short on time, I decided to move my appearances down to a “cameo” on some, while ditching another one altogether.
I decided that my personal development needed to be on the schedule, instead of the informal “I do this throughout the day, informally” approach.
My first attempt conflicted with my wife’s day off and our time together, so I moved it.
Flexibility in your plan might just mean delegating something you’ve felt the need to cling to.
It might mean trusting your team more to get your back instead of your “If I want it done right, I have to do it myself” mentality!
If you haven’t done so already, please check out the premium content I’m going to be sharing during our webinar, A Simple Plan To GROW Your Sales In 2017. It all takes place, January 12th, at 11:30 am EST.
I’m going to be sharing over 25 ideas to help you SELL MORE.
Here’s what you’re about to miss if you don’t sign up . . .
- 3 Automated Sales Tactics That Will Save You Time and Make You Money
- How To Add 16 More Selling Days In 2017 WITHOUT Infringing Upon Your Personal Life
- How To Add 1500 More “Touches”, This Year, To Your Prospecting Efforts (Even When You’re Crazy Busy)
- The 5 Obstacles To Building Your Business (and what you can do about it)
- A Simple Tactic To Free Up More Selling Time
- A Proven Routine To Help You Grow Your Sales
- 10 Ways To Absolutely ROCK Your Selling Efforts
- How To Blow Off Unnecessary Meetings WITHOUT Being Rude
- The One Thing That Can Make You More Productive Immediately
Click HERE or the banner below to learn more and to reserve your seat.
Registration is about to end so stop procrastinating and sign up today.
Can’t make it on January 12th? Sign up anyway and I’ll send you the webinar replay later that day!
