Imagine, for a second, that you’re sitting at a business luncheon meeting with 30-40 other individuals and you’re listening to a guest speaker with a good reputation, a significant following, and a freshly written book. His topic today is, “How to Increase Sales and Profits by Leaps and Bounds in 2019.”
And, of course, you’re hooked on the topic – your sales, and unfortunately, profits have been off for the last two quarters, two of your best performers have defected to competitors, and the rest of your sales team is just OK but not stellar top performers.
You’re facing the truth: In all probability, they won’t be able to pull out the results you need during Q4. And worse, your job may be on the line. So you’re on the hook for results from your board of directors and the CEO.
And yet, there is hope – that you’ll get one or two ideas that just might turn the ship around.
The strategies that your speaker is sharing today are solid and sound advice.
For instance, he suggests, Four tips to make 2019 an “over the top success.” They are:
1. “Get more meetings with key decision-makers who have the authority and budget to do business with you.”
2. “Develop a strategic plan to grow your best five accounts.”
3. “Ask for 3 -5 referrals – from all your existing and new prospects.
4. And, oh yeah – “Be more professional than the competition.”
You walk away thinking, “Yes, of course! That makes perfect sense!”
Sounds simple, right? And it is, simple. It’s just not easy. Why not?
Two Reasons:
1. Because we’re talking concepts, not process. And we’re definitely not talking the algorithms necessary to execute effectively.
2. Because you know “What to do,” just not, exactly “How do I actually do that?”
And that’s the difference between “knowing what to do” and how to precisely execute the “what.”
In order for us to actually execute the behaviors, habits, and skills necessary to accomplish the four strategies above you’ll need more clarity and clear process steps.
Below are four immediate “go-to” suggestions to help you get there:
1. Do your thinking on paper, not in your head. A number of recent studies now show the value of using pencil/pen on paper leads to a much deeper immersive experience and provide better levels of concentration and focus. I’ve often thought that myself and new research seems to back it up.
2. Determine your purpose and exactly what you’re trying to accomplish (always stated in a client/customer-centric way, usually a benefit to your prospective customer, both external and internal). For example: “To help the team sell more product/services to meet Q4 financial targets so that we’re all feeling pumped and more successful (plus, I get to keep my job).
3. Define your desired outcome in 2-3 specific wins. Ask yourself, “If this initiative, project or objective goes great, how will I know?” What will success look like? If it’s completely successful, what’s the next logical step?
4. Try to think in terms of a logical process or algorithm: Step one, then step two, then step three and so on. Break it down to individual steps that will move you closer to your desired outcome.
Your Action Plan
So, in the next five days, when someone says, “Here’s what you should or need to do…”– ask yourself, “How can I actually do that?”
For instance, if our desired outcome would be to have more meetings with Decision Makers whom both have the authority and budget to do business with you, your immediate steps would be:
– Step One – Identify true Decision Makers within your target accounts that might be prospective buyers for your product or service.
– Step Two – Determine their budget and authority to engage with you or your team.
– Step Three Define a specific, relevant approach that you believe would resonate with that individual decision-maker.
– Step Four – Start/Execute your approach.
What’s your process for executing your most important initiatives?
Vision2Results is a high-touch training; coaching and consulting organization that specializes in helping individuals, teams and organizations execute the “how” instead of just “the what” in the real world of business.
And, we help clients dramatically enhance the effectiveness of their communication at the intersection of employee-customer engagement.
Our passion is helping companies; teams and individuals realize their full potential.
