4 Tips on Reaching Your Sales Goals From Marketing 360®
November 20, 2017
Everyone who works in sales wants to hit the best numbers – but only a small percentage of salespeople do so consistently. How do they do it? Here are 4 things we see our top salespeople do consistently. Try them yourself to improve your sales numbers.
Meet Your Sales Goal Tip #1: Start With the Result
One of the most useful tips in reaching any goal is to start with the end in mind. When you know where you’re going, it’s much easier to map out a way to get there.
In sales, this probably means you’re looking at a revenue number. 10k a month, 100k a quarter, a million for the year.
It may also mean you want to be one of the top performers on your team. Look at what other top performers have done and use those numbers to set your goals.
Write this number on your mirror. Make it your desktop background. Think about it as you organize your deals and plan your opportunities.
Setting a goal is ostensibly easy, but integrating into your planning and actions isn’t, which leads us to the next tip.
Meet Your Sales Goals Tip #2: Reverse Engineer Your Actions
You see your sales goal number in front of you, yet it’s in the distance. You visualize making it, but how did you get there?
At this point, start working your way backward.
- How many deals did you have to close?
- What range of big and smaller deals were involved?
- How many touches did you have to average with each lead?
- How did you use email and content to educate leads and fill information gaps?
- How many calls did you have to make?
- How many leads did you need?
- What closing percentage did you have to hit?
Organize and scrutinize the answers to these questions. Now you have a series of micro-goals to hit. You need to make 75 calls a day. You have three different email campaigns to use depending on the vertical you’re working. You have a series of blogs you can use to answer questions and nurture leads.
You know you’re going to have to make about 10 touches per lead. You prioritize your bigger deals without neglecting the smaller ones you’ll need to make your goal. You have to close about 20 deals out of 100 opportunities, so you’re looking at a 20% closing ratio.
Meet Your Sales Goals Tip #3: Visualize Success
Picture yourself on the phone. It’s getting late into the afternoon and you’re behind on the number of calls you need to make. Time to pick it up.
You’re dialing. You get voice mail. As you leave your message you make a quick note in the CRM. You have your next call ready.
You don’t even hang up the phone. You just press the button then start dialing the next number. You’re on a mission.
Picture yourself on the phone. You’re professional, pleasant, and prepared. You can answer any question, you have content to back up any claim.
You’re on time. Early to the office, always making scheduled calls. You’re closing – asking for the business because you know this lead will make a great client.
Picture it your mind: you closed that big deal and you’re on your way to hitting goal.
Sales tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you visualize success it engenders the behavior that leads to success. Same goes for failing.
Start your month by picturing yourself making your sales goals at the end of the month. Now follow the vision.
Meet Your Sales Goals Tip #4: Execute
Now the tire meets the road. Strap on your Nikes. Just do it.
Each day, you have to make your calls and get out your touches. Record everything you do in your CRM software so don’t veer from your path.
Top sales performers are consistent. They know what they need to do every day and they meet those goals – every day. There is no “off” day. You don’t take it easy just because you closed a big deal the day before. You don’t start taking long coffee breaks because you had a series of bad calls.
Because you visualized the path you’re on, you’re prepared to meet and overcome obstacles. You know success will happen, but you’re not going to get complacent.
Sales, more than most professions, is self-determined. Your planning, effort, and execution have everything to do with reaching your goals.
It’s a new month, the new quarter is around the corner. How’s your year going to turn out?
Follow these tips and you’ll get the best results possible, which is all you can ask of yourself.
It’s up to you.
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