Alongside the Autumnal chill in the air and the leaves on the trees changing colour, Autumn also brings a new academic year, a fresh football season and for many in business that vital final quarter to the financial year. All these require setting or reviewing and achieving goals (quite literally for footballers!)
In sales, unfortunately, you can’t just wave a magic wand and expect to achieve ambitious sales targets. Achieving ambitious sales goals, like anything, requires hard work but it’s also important to constantly review what and how you are doing, and to step outside your comfort zone, so below are my Top Tips to help you push yourself out of your sales comfort zone, in order, to stretch yourself to achieve those goals for this final quarter:
It’s very easy to set a vague goal, for example, “we want to find new clients from the finance sector.” Make it SMART by specifying – how many new clients, from which part of the finance sector, by when and identifying whether the goal is achievable? A goal which isn’t achievable is demoralising for those trying to achieve it.
2. Set up a client referral programme. If you have done good work for existing clients, could you offer them something to encourage them to refer their contacts or clients to you? Even if you don’t set up a referral programme then how about purposefully asking them if they know of any contacts who might be interested in the products / services you offer?
3. Collaboration – what opportunities do you have for collaboration with organisations / people in other industries where partnerships and cross referrals could be of mutual benefit?
4. Networking – this is a dreaded word for some people. However, networking could be an avenue that will yield results if you push yourself to attend events and meet new contacts, which could lead to interesting opportunities for you and your business.
5. Finally, and most importantly increase the number of your daily and weekly Critical Sales Activities (those activities that actually yield results), challenge yourself to:
Sales requires persistence, don’t assume that a lead will come back to you even if they’ll say they will! You need to be tenacious with following up any lead and prospect.
Good luck with achieving your goals!
