"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment"
Jim Rohn
In a few short months, the holiday season will be upon us and before you know it, we will all be talking about the year 2020. For many of you, Q4 becomes the craziest time of the year. You and your sales team will be heads down, fast at work, doing all you can to meet budgets and close out the year strong.
Many on your team will find themselves striving to reach their annual sales goals, but some will be unsure about how to successfully close deals with all the year-sales pressure you place on them.
Why does it have to be this way?
Are you helping or placing undo pressure on your sales team? Are you chasing numbers? Are you creating chaos? Are you leading the way and showing the way? Are you guiding, coaching and nurturing?
SOUL SEARCHING QUESTIONS
- What proactive steps will I take to insure my sales teams' success in Q4?
- What will I commit to do in order to insure their success?
- What is my tolerance level for getting uncomfortable?
- What will this mean to me and to my team?
- Where will my team be at the end of 2019?
- What do I personally need to do in order to ensure each one on my sales team reaches their goals?
"A close mind is a death sentence for sales reps"
Selling from the Heart
GLORY DAYS OR DOOMSDAY?
This got me thinking of a rock-n-roll icon, Bruce Springsteen
Think I'm going down to the well tonight
And I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of, well time slips away
And leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of... GLORY DAYS
What will you commit to do in order to ensure your sales team has the best Q4 ever?
As you look into Q4, your success and your defining moments, will be won or lost based on one key factor: YOU!
You hold the keys to your teams' year-end success. The competition isn't winning because their offerings are more impressive. They're winning because they're delivering a more superior sales experience.
"You must keep it simple and get back to the basics"
GET HYPERFOCUSED ON GOALS
I encourage you to go back to those business plans you had your sales team prepare, blow the dust off them, review them, reflect upon them and compare it to where everyone is at right now. I would be curious to know what you uncovered and what you learned? How well are your salespeople on track?
A few tips that may help you with your team:
- Plan and prepare the night before, create a daily Q4 action plan
- Hold your sales team accountable every day to do the most difficult things first, such as prospecting
- Coach them in how to eliminate all distractions and time wasters
- Every single day you must self-reflect on what needs to be done to ensure your sales teams success
As you implement these tips... Look at where you're at now against the team plan. What do you personally need to do in order to have your entire team achieve their year- end sales goals?
Think about creating an addendum to your plan and it doesn't have to be overly complicated. It's a strategic and tactical plan for acquiring new business and growing existing business within the next 90 days.
Inside this team addendum think about...
- New business strategies
- New business tactics
- Current client growth strategies
- Current client growth tactics
Then I encourage you to list three ways you will hold yourself personally accountable over the final 90 days of 2019 to ensure your team hits their plan.
GET REACQUAINTED WITH YOUR CURRENT CLIENTS
Often overlooked and one of the best sources of sales growth - retaining and growing your current client base. It’s less expensive and more effective to retain current clients than it is to acquire new ones.
Spend the next 30 days and task every single sales rep (even the top reps) to uncover their client's year-end initiatives. Then, put a plan together with your team as to how you can help your clients achieve their goals. Just think about the relationships you strengthen and the opportunities uncovered. Together, you help each other win by building relationship bridges not tearing down walls.
Dig in, dive in and become obsessed with this over the next 90 days.
Have each one on your team target their top clients and personally visit with them. I encourage you to have them ask this one question, "How can I help you do better business over the next 90 days?"
I'm here to tell you the key to your sales growth in Q4 lies in the hands of your current clients.
LEVERAGE SOCIAL
Fuel business growth over the next 90 days by integrating social into your sales teams daily plan. Your clients use social and so do your prospects, quite frankly; social has become deeply woven into our everyday way of life.
The core elements of integrating social into your Q4 growth plan can be accomplished by:
- Enhancing and building upon your teams social presence - have them establish credibility and help them to create visibility within the marketplace
- Listening and research - have them gain an understanding of what your clients and prospects are talking about... What's important? What's top of mind?
- Engaging in conversations - they must join in and start conversations moving them from online to offline. They must engage, educate and excite people into conversations.
Smashing your Q4 targets means integrating social into all aspects of prospecting while building better relationships with your current clients.
Take Massive Action
Are you going to let the last 90 days of 2019 slip by? I encourage you to take massive action. You must take the necessary steps and do something NOW in order to achieve the results you desire by the end of the year.
Success never falls from the sky. It is not like you'll wake up tomorrow and BOOM your team is at plan.
Success is not by accident, it is by design. Work your reengineered plan hard the next 90 days.
Start with your vision and self-reflect on it daily. Create the plan now and work relentlessly toward your goal, I know you can do it!
ATTENTION TO ALL SALES LEADERS...
Would you like to stoke the fires of success to help your team crush it in Q4? Let’s do a virtual sales meeting. I’ll fire up your team. I’ll also include copies of Selling From the Heart to rejuvenate and inspire your reps. Interested? Message me for details.
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
