A recent marketing challenge by 3 enterprising individuals to write 100 articles in 100 days led to EzineArticles sweetening the challenge by including a free mug for all who achieve this article marketing goal. What is interesting to note was the many similar remarks from those who accepted the challenge such as:
This will push me to my limits and force me to focus and take action.
I got a little burned out on the article writing, but this should help me get my motivation back.
I think it might take something like this to commit. GADS! Enough of my empty promises to myself.
This should be one almighty undertaking. But I have been trying to push my article writing forward, this is a great spur.
Haven't submitted articles in a while, this is just the motivation I need.
Sales Coaching Tip: When working to achieve a sales goal, break it into smaller bites such as taking a 3 month goal and breaking it into daily actions. This is how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
Given that less than 2% of all current authors for this site have more than 100 articles, I began to wonder why 98% of these individuals have not submitted at least 100 articles? And, more importantly, how similar is this lack of achievement to the inability for many sales professionals to achieve their sales goals.
Sales research suggests that anywhere from 40% to 70% of all sales targets are not achieved. Other research reveals that almost 50% of all sales leads are left to die because they are not followed up. Finally, 10% of all sales professionals make more than 3 contacts with their potential customers (a.k.a. prospects).
What this tells me is that high performance (meaning the goal to increase sales is realized) sales people are hard to find. From this research and my own observations, it appears that far too many choose not to be one of the few who achieve the sales goals, but rather one of the many who fail. After all selling is hard or is it?
Yet, when given a particular challenge, many sales people will respond positively provided the challenge has been given in the same way. The 100 articles in 100 days was an opt in goal. No one was forced to participate. Possibly, sales managers can take note and look how they can structure their sales targets in such a way that builds What's in it for me leading to the What's In It for Us
Additionally, many of these individuals wanted to write more articles, but needed a little push to get them off the dime. Sales Coaching Tip: More often than not, inspiration is confused with motivation.
What it boils down to is do you really want to increase sales or are you just getting by, doing what you have always done, getting what you have always gotten? And that is probably why there are so few who achieve their sales goals and so many who fail to increase sales.
