A good friend of mine complained to me yesterday that she hadn’t met her sales goals in over three years. 
THIS IS DANGEROUS!
“Dangerous?”, you ask!
YES! DANGEROUS!
Confidence is EVERYTHING and if you are not meeting your set goals over and over and over… it is worse than creeping gangrene!
What did we do?
We looked at her sales cycle. Interesting.
Her shortest EVER time to close a deal is 3 months. THE SHORTEST has been 3 months … from first conversation to signed contract. Last year she closed a deal she has been working on for TEN years. This person has a business with a LONG sales cycle. Average closed deal is 18 months.
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BUT, she keeps setting quarterly and yearly goals. NO WONDER she is missing the mark! Her goals are not in-line with her true time horizon.
And here is what is ESPECIALLY deadly!
When my good friend is looking at what she needs to have happen this year, she feels hopeless and un-motivated. Of course she would! She has NO control over what is going to happen this year – what she did six or eight or nine months ago will dictate what happens this year. The subconscious realization of this brutal fact keeps her from being motivated now.
I mean, REALLY! It’s LUCK to her when she closes a deal. The activities that led to them are so far in the past.
Know what we did?
We started to create her goals for 2015 and 2016. Looked at “what are the deals I want to close 18 – 24 months from NOW”.
NOW she has power. She realizes that what she does today affects future years. YAY!
Also, the added benefit is that when she understands that what she does TODAY affects her success, she does exciting things, takes action NOW, which will DEFINITELY impact her performance THIS YEAR, TOO!
Do yourself a favor.
Look. Are your sales goals aligned with your sales cycle? If you are a month-by-month producer, then preparing for one or two months from now is probably appropriate. If you are a year-over-year producer – start thinking WAY out! Your results will become WAY OUT!
Love your future UP!
The Irreverent Sales Girl