New Year, New Sales Goals: Aim High and Achieve
The start of a new year is the perfect time to set ambitious sales goals. But, it's important to be realistic. Remember, winning 30% of deals is typically considered a good win rate for a seller.
So, be comfortable being uncomfortable; pushing your boundaries is where growth happens. Being good at setting the goal is the starting point for reengineering your own success.
Many businesses struggle not because of poor sales skills, but because of flawed goal setting. Let's explore four essential strategies to set effective goals and supercharge your sales success in the new year and beyond.
Set Ambitious Goals and Get Going
These four steps sound easy but can be difficult if you don’t follow through.
1. Prioritize Lead Generation
The foundation of any successful sales strategy is a consistent flow of quality leads. Before you can close deals, you need potential customers to engage with. Focus on building a robust lead generation system, whether through marketing campaigns, networking, or referrals.
Remember, the more quality leads you have, the greater your chances of hitting those ambitious targets. Don't forget the sales truth:
“Leads are the first key to sales success.””
Key Strategies for Lead Generation:
Content Marketing: Create valuable content that attracts and educates your target audience.
Social Selling: Leverage social media to connect with potential customers and build relationships.
Email Marketing: Use targeted email campaigns to nurture leads and move them through the sales funnel.
Networking: Attend industry events and connect with potential customers in person.
2. Learn from Every Win and Loss
Every sales interaction, successful or not, offers valuable lessons. Take the time to analyze both your wins and losses. What worked? What didn't? Understanding your strengths and weaknesses can help refine your approach and improve your win rate.
Remember, even losses can be valuable learning experiences. To get better, you must also be a student of the process: take the time to review the details and analyze where you can improve and exploit competitor's weaknesses.
Key Tips for Learning from Experience:
Track Your Results: Keep a record of your sales activities and outcomes.
Solicit Feedback: Ask for feedback from customers, colleagues, and managers.
Conduct Win-Loss Analysis: Review your successful and unsuccessful deals to identify patterns and areas for improvement.
Role-Play: Practice your sales pitch and objection handling with a colleague or mentor.
3. Nurture Your Network
Your professional network is a powerful asset. Invest time in building and nurturing relationships with decision-makers, influencers, and colleagues. Offer support, share insights, and be genuinely interested in helping others. A strong network can open doors, provide valuable leads, and support your overall sales efforts.
“You must invest time in developing your network and invest more time in helping those people achieve their goals.”
Key Strategies for Networking:
Attend Industry Events: Conferences, trade shows, and networking events are great places to meet potential customers and partners.
Join Online Communities: Participate in online forums and groups related to your industry.
Connect on Social Media: Build relationships with potential customers and influencers on social media.
Offer Value: Share your expertise and insights with your network.
4. Stay Consistent
Success in sales, like anything else, requires consistency. Make a plan and stick to it. Dedicate time daily and weekly to lead generation, network building, and skill development. Consistency will build momentum and keep you on track toward your goals.
This means daily and weekly consistency. It does not mean focusing on one day a month and picking it again sometime next month. It means blocking time on your calendar to do the work daily and weekly so that consistency and discipline emerges.
Others will see this as being conscientious and systemized. They will ask you how you achieve your goals because you seem to win and do it so effortlessly because you have gotten to the core of what drives selling success.
Key Tips for Staying Consistent:
Set Daily and Weekly Goals: Break down your larger sales goals into smaller, more manageable targets.
Track Your Progress: Monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Celebrate Your Wins: Acknowledge your successes and stay motivated.
Find an Accountability Partner: Partner with a colleague or mentor who can help you stay on track.
Put it into Practice
Yes, you need to work on closing, objection handling, and other things, too. But to get going, you need to have these things in place to drive all of the other sales outcomes. You cannot close a deal that is not active in your pipeline.
Get going with networking, talk to your marketing team/person about generating top-of-funnel volume (and collaborate on improving the quality of that volume), study the winners, and find your way to the President’s Club.
Remember, it's not about luck; it's about strategy, hard work, and a commitment to continuous improvement