Nothing worth having is easy. This is especially true in sales. In an increasingly competitive market, a New Year is a symbolic time to assess your goals. Figure out where you can step up your game and crush your competition. The only clear path to achieve your goals is through consistency. Here’s how.
1. Start the Day Right
The alarm clock is going off. How do you react? This is the first defining moment of the day. If you hit snooze on the clock, you might as well hit snooze on your productivity. The right attitude to kickstart success is waking up every day, feet on the ground running. Do this consistently and you’ll be ready to crush it before the alarm even goes off!
2. Keep Showing Up
Success has less to do with what you show up with, and more to do with simply showing up.
Any persistent Joe Schmoe could wrestle a client into submission. Those who’s services stand out maintain those clients. Keeping clients requires consistency. As Gary Vaynerchuk exemplified, If you want to be respected, be consistent. Show up.
3. Find Your Niche
Try to be everything to everyone and you’ll end up being nothing to nobody. The more narrow you get, the more success you will find.
There are riches in niches. Build your systems around serving specific groups. Get to know them better than they know themselves. Consistently put yourself in their shoes so you can serve their needs adequately.
4. Stop Procrastinating
Goals can seem too daunting to achieve. With so much to do, we become crippled. Having this weight on your shoulders almost makes it easier to do nothing. Society calls this “procrastination.” However, procrastination doesn’t exist.
Lofty goals need to be dissected into tangibles. Breakdown your desired endgame by months, weeks, and days. With a clear view, you can structure your workdays for success more efficiently. Structure creates less desire to “procrastinate.”
5. Manage Your Time
Once you know where you’re headed, formulate a routine. Routines make time management second nature.
Managing time efficiently goes hand-in-hand with consistency. If you always make good use of your time, you will continue to do so. Ask anyone who tries to give up a vice. Habits are hard to break…even the good ones.
6. Priority Prospecting
If you’re not moving forward, you’re going backward. The best way to crush competition in 2019 is by setting up your future. You’ve named your goal and drew a road map getting there. Now, factor in time every week for prospecting.
7. Keep the Pipeline Full
You can’t make sales without people to purchase your services. Always keep your pipeline full. Achieve this feat through consistent communication. Whether you’re a salesperson seeing a potential client through the process or a business managing salespeople, communication is fundamental. Remind potential clients and salespeople of their goals. Help devise paths to achieve them.
8. Follow Up
Want to keep your clients happy? Follow up with them! When I was a financial adviser, I would call clients with any pertinent news. Then, I’d tie this news in with the real reason I was calling…by following up with a service. Making follow-up calls shows you care, educates your client, and creates more sales.
9. Every Second Counts
I’m for working harder but I’m also for working smarter. Today matters. Put in effort even when others aren’t. Is your competition usually off on Friday afternoons? Then strike! It’s easier to win a race when no one else is running.
10. Every Let Up
A taste of success can breed contentment. The minute you feel comfortable, you’re not growing. If you get a bit of momentum, ride that wave forward. Don’t ease back. This is a sign that you’re afraid of your own success. Like Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
