September 2010 – Page 5 – Getentrepreneurial.com: Resources for Small Business Entrepreneurs in 2024

Many sales professionals and sales leaders are so busy handling day to day challenges that they forget to formalize their sales career aspirations and goals. Make the time to do this today. Spending just 10 to 20 minutes on this 5-step sales coaching process could make all the difference in the world.

You might already have some ideas floating around in your mind, and now it is time to get them written down. Or maybe you have even completed something like this before in the past, but you have not looked at your notes or updated your sales career goals in years.

1. Think about what you’d like people to say about you at your retirement party. This general concept comes from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” Imagine you are at the end of your sales career, looking back. What would you like to have accomplished in your career? How would you like to be remembered?

Start acting now, how you want to be remembered. Be now, how you want to be remembered, and don’t wait! You want to be a VP of Sales for a major Fortune 500 company, then start acting like one. What do you think a top VP of Sales was doing when she was in your shoes?

2. Brainstorm and write down some specific sales career goals you would like to accomplish before you retire. This exercise should flow much easier after completing step #1. There are many areas you could focus on, but here are some general topics to get you started: responsibility held, freedom created, impact on others, income made, started own business, moved into sales leadership or management, #1 performer, helped others to be a #1 performer.

3. Pick 3 sales goals. Take a look at your list and choose up to 3 goals that really stand out to you. Pay attention to the energy around each goal and find which ones really get you excited. Don’t get rid of the other goals, but just pick 3 to focus on, for now.

4. Break it down and make these 3 sales career goals very specific. What do you have to accomplish in the next month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and so on, to reach these goals? Plan it out step by step so you know exactly what needs to get done to accomplish your goals.

5. Action! Start with what you need to accomplish this next month and create specific action items or a to-do list for each week of the month. Ask yourself what can I do to accelerate these goals, and if I only get one very important thing accomplished each day this week, what would that be?

Follow this simple 5-step process and you will be taking positive steps towards your sales career goals and dreams.

About the Author:

Jeremy J. Ulmer is one of the most dynamic and requested sales coaching experts in the country. His company specializes in working with executive sales leadership, organizations, and individual sales performers to transform their sales results. They deliver customized sales coaching programs and sales management coaching seminars. Sign up for free sales tips and free sales coaching webinars at: http://www.SalesCoachingHabits.com/

It’s the beginning of August, and I just received a phone call from someone I met at a July 4th Bar-B-Q. Quite honestly I had forgotten about this particular conversation until the phone call today. You see, I had given this person a personal challenge and asked him to try it for 3 weeks and let me know if there was a difference.

John approached me and introduced himself as someone had told him that I help sales people sell more and managers manage better for their sales people to sell more. He was at his wits end because his sales team had gone negative, they were selling less and he could see his ship had sprung a major leak and was going down.

I asked John how he was responding to his sinking ship. He said he didn’t enjoy talking to his team and that all he could do was tell them to get over it.

I really didn’t want to spend my 4th of July “working” so I gave him an exercise to show negativity the door. This is what I told him:

1. Get an index card for each seller.
2. Place their name at the top.
3. List all of the good qualities for each person.
4. Carry the cards around each day.
5. Look at them and any chance you get comment to your sellers about one of the good qualities.
6. Do this every day for 3 weeks and let me know if you see a difference.

John snickered and said that finding good qualities would be difficult for one person in particular. I asked him to find something – even if it was that they had a nice smile, or a good voice or dressed well. It didn’t matter. You can find something good in everyone, even if it’s only one thing.

When John called me after his 3-week experiment, he was amazed at how the negativity had left the building! People were collaborating on strategy, new ideas and new ways to bring in business. The attitude and atmosphere had changed, the energy was different and he could see things were turning around.

It is amazing how focusing on the positive will shift people’s thoughts, attitude and behavior. If negativity is in your building and you’d like to show it the exit I challenge you to take this 3-week challenge and I look forward to reading about your success in the Comments section.

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power. To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!