I always find that December is a busy month. There are sales quotas that need to be met for the current year, first quarter of 2013 is getting set-up, budgets are finalized…and the list goes on.
While this is a busy time of the year, it’s also a good time to ask critical questions such as:
WHAT WILL I STOP DOING IN 2013? It is often easy to confuse busyness with productiveness. (Can anyone, besides me, relate to the picture of a gerbil on the wheel?)
Slow down, get off the treadmill and analyze your business. Make it a goal to work smarter in 2013.
Conduct a win-loss analysis of your sales in 2012. Do you know why you are winning or losing business? Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Are there certain industries or verticals where your products and services are valued more than other verticals? For example, in our business we win business in a complex business-to-business sale. We don’t win business where sales are viewed as transactional. STOP CALLING ON CHEAP PROSPECTS.
- Are you calling at the right level of the organization? You might be calling on the right vertical but not connecting with the right decision maker. This sales challenge is often a combination of emotional intelligence skills and hard skills. Lack of assertiveness or self regard may be the real reason you are not setting up meetings with the appropriate decision makers. Hard selling skills show up when you don’t have a good pre-call planning process in place. You are ‘winging’ sales appointments instead of preparing customized value propositions and questions based on the prospect’s title and industry. STOP CALLING ON NON-DECISION MAKERS.
- Sales activity. What gets measured improves. How many of you know what sales activity generated the most profitable sales? Was it cold calling, email prospecting, referral partners, social media, PR? Again, review your business to figure out where you need to show up in 2013. STOP THE INSANITY, WHICH IS REPEATING THE SAME BEHAVIOR AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS.
So the final questions are: What will you stop doing? What will you start doing?
