With only a couple days remaining in the year, maybe some of you right now are wiping your hand across your forward muttering some beneficial words under your breath. For some they have been better sales results than last year and for others worse. This ending begs the answer to this question:
Is it time to stop looking in the rearview mirror?
Take a moment to think about driving your car from a known to an unknown point. Do you drive with both hands on the wheel and looking backward using the rearview mirror only or do you drive forward with occasional looks in the side mirrors for potential obstacles?
Even with global positioning, many still use printed maps to get the 30,000 foot view of their forthcoming travels. If they are traveling from Chicago, IL to Denver, Colorado, do they really care about the states to the east of Illinois? No! They are looking to the west, forward to see where they are going so if they need to make a course correction (overcome a known or even unexpected obstacle within the sales process), they have a far better idea of what specific action steps to take.
Applying this metaphor have you invested the time to look at the big picture such as industry trends, local to national issues affecting your potential customers? Are you keeping up with your current sales statistics? Or have you been as often quoted by Michael Gerber far too busy working in the business and not on the business?
Now some may argue, Leanne, what about last year's numbers, you are ignoring critical information? If you made last year's number, then why should you not be able to meet this year's? And if last year was challenging, then you should have invested the time to set a new plan of action at the beginning of this year. This action alone would have suggested you have already made the necessary course corrections.
Also, I never suggested not to ever look in the rearview mirror. This behavior is necessary when parking cars. If your sales are not where you need them to be, then maybe it is time to park your car and truly study your MAP (my action plan).
Research from CSO Insights in February of 2010 revealed 2009 was far more challenging that many realized. Their data suggests that meeting sales quotas dropped from 58.8% in 2008 to 51.8% in 2010. Of course this poor performance did not stop the surveyed companies from raising their targets in 2010.
What I have observed is that over 50% of all sales people including small business owners, realtors, financial advisors, consultants and even business coaches do not follow-up on every sales lead. This may be part of the answer for missed sales targets and not necessarily the economy, as some have been lead to believe. Sales Training Coaching Tip: "It's the economy stupid" is for many a cop-out, an excuse to avoid personal accountability.
With leads getting cold at what make appear to be the speed of light (15 minutes according to a Dr. James Oldroyd from the Kellog School of Management) this also suggests today's top performing salesperson must have a very effective contact management system and a process for follow-up. This works even better when those entering the "sales funnel" are pre-qualified according to these qualifying criteria:
Decision maker
Identified need or needs
Allocated budget
Demonstrated urgency
Commitment level
Additionally, when professional sales people engage in rearview driving, they are demonstrating far more reactive behaviors instead of proactive ones. This reactive behavior is one of the major differences between average salespersons and top sales performers.
Another problem with rearview driving it places you in the sphere of what's beyond your control. No one can change the past for time once experienced never returns. Each day has a finite number of seconds, minutes and hours. This is why time should always be considered as an investment in a limited.
In life, be it personal or professional, there exists 3 spheres. The innermost and smallest one is what you can control. Moving outward, what you can influence is the next circle. This is a little bigger than What You Can Control. Finally, both circles reside within the largest and third circle of What You Cannot Control.
When you think about sales, the economy, the interactions with people, how much of our time is truly devoted to what we cannot control or influence? What would happen if you just transferred just 10% of your energies focusing on What You Cannot Control to What You Can Control? Would you begin to see improved sales results?
Now is the time to plan the next 6 months. Review the terrain and road conditions. Check your car to make sure it is properly serviced. Maintain your car as you travel up and down all of those "Selling Roads." Leave the rearview mirror for others and those occasional times when you must park your car. Use the mile markers are your daily benchmarks. By taking these proactive actions, you will probably arrive at your destination early (made that sales target) and with the expenditure of less resources.
