Category Archives: GOALS

Reflect and Plan!

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Do you take time to reflect on the past and plan for the future?  Or are you a person who seemingly does not have time to reflect and plan. Or a person who will not take time to reflect and plan.

We are now in the last month of quarter three for 2020.  Barely 4 months left to complete the year.  We have holidays and time off coming up. 

Are you reflecting and planning how to finish and complete your goals for the year? 

Easy to say, but with such a disruptive year that 2020 has been it can be easy to make excuses for not completing the year as expected.

Of course, we all are aware that there are many distractions and in many cases obstacles have been thrown at us that will prevent or make a different outcome for this year 2020.

I believe now and for the next few months each of us need to make time for reflection on the past and look hard at our futures.  This may be one of the best disruptive times in our lives to really think and plan for the future.  Certainly, with the disruptions and more home time, we can all carve our reflection and planning time.

20 to 30 minutes per day — Reflect and plan.  Do this daily through the end of the year and you will have created a habit that will benefit you for the rest of your life.  Be sure to take notes and keep them for review.

Good luck!

Join this site! — Let me know your thoughts and ideas.

Daily behaviors for sales success need to be taught and coached!

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Last week I discussed the simplicity of the daily selling “Grind”!  Many salespeople will not do daily behaviors. Doing and tracking is hard. A lot of salespeople get little or no training in selling behaviors. I have met, hired, and fired salespeople who are afraid of the accountability a system creates. 

The best most productive and highest paid salespeople are lifelong learners.  They embrace continuous sales training and get onboard with daily behaviors; they understand the power of doing the numbers every day.  A day missed is potential lost sales.

I believe many people think sales requires an inordinate amount of time.  Daily phone cold-calling, fitting as many appointments in as possible, working 12, 15, 18 hours per day.

Depending on your goals and the goals of your organization you can set up a daily set of behaviors that produce desired results and work 8 hours or less and be very productive. 

Do daily numbers go home every night and know sales and goals will happen.  Work a little harder the week before a vacation and go away knowing everything is still happening and sales will continue.

However, from experience I have seen many salespeople who just cannot get into the daily habits and they fail to make their goals and sales happen.

I tell every new salesperson what to expect and that there will be great sales training, continuous sales training, and a minimum set of daily behaviors.  The daily behaviors are recorded tracked and accountable, for continued employment.

I usually get feedback and sometimes push back on this.

What are your thoughts?

Positive thoughts become positive actions!

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Trying times!  Everything can – and will – change! 

Do your part – Make small positive acts and actions today.  Positive thoughts do become positive actions!

Memorize several positive mantras, release old, negative thoughts that may plague you.  

Your attitude and lifestyle will improve.

Start by taking a minute before using affirmations – SCR – Slow down, Calm, Relax.  Then start and repeat an affirmation. 

Here are a few affirmations I have recommended and used:

  1. “I am not afraid to take small risks in life.”
  2. “I see opportunities everywhere.”
  3. “Every day I am grateful for my life!”
  4. “I believe I can succeed in anything I set my mind to.”

Use these, combine them or write your own.  Repeat them at least once every day.  Spend 1 to 3 minutes repeating your mantra.  If possible, do this 2 or 3 times per day.

The more you use affirmations the more old beliefs will fade away.

Here are some more positive thoughts to go along with you daily:

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.” — Albert Einstein

“An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality.”– Brian Tracy

“It’s most important that you surround yourself with positivity always, and have it in your mind at all times.”– Tyler Perry

Stay safe!

Doing business with the government?

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Does your company do business with the government? 

I did with my last company and have started doing government contracting with the current company I work with. 

There is a very large “RIVER” of bids coming out daily. Once you figure out what you can sell to the government learn the process and get going.

Many people talk with me about how hard or how easy it is to begin selling to the government. I have helped several companies get started. The process is not complicated. However, it does take consistent effort, daily oversight and certainly work.

Now is the time to find new markets to help bolster your year!

If interested — Contact me, let’s talk.

Easy to do! Easy not to do!

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Habits/Goals/ Behaviors seem hard to start and in too many cases hard to stop.

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The following quote is from Jim Rohn (American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker) –

“We've all heard the expression, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.'  Well, I've got a good question for you:  What if it's true?  Wouldn't that be easy to do—to eat an apple a day?  Here's the problem:  It's also easy not to do.”

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I have a belief, that we all can start a new habit/goal/behavior, and we can all set the process as easy as possible for achievement.  However, as Jim Rohn pointed out eating an apple a day is easy to do, easy to measure and easy to accomplish, but it's also easy not to do. 

Over the past years, I have posted thoughts about setting goals.  I try to help set a foundation for others to get in the goal setting habit.  Easy to do! Easy not to do!  Less than 5% of people actually set and write goals down. 

As a longtime member of Toastmasters, I remember a speech given about goals.  I can't recall the speaker’s name, but it did stick with me. 

The speaker said, start your habit/goal/behavior journey small.  Pick one item to accomplish over a period of time — make it a 12 month period.  Track your progress daily.  If you miss a day or two don’t worry just keep going.  I thought this was pretty simple basic — but, why not give it a try and get going.

At the time, I wanted to increase my daily reading habit.  I thought reading 10 pages per day was doable — hoping to read about 10 books that year.  It worked!  Today I have a sustained reading goal of 15 pages per day, I've read a lot of books over the years.  

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“But as Jim Rohn would say, “What's simple to do is also simple not to do.” The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect.”

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Begin now and have great satisfaction of accomplishment for 2020!

5 – Tips to keep your “GOALS” moving!

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Many people have stopped working on their Goals for year 2019. 

Hopefully you have made it easy to see your goals and review them for progress frequently.

Here are 5 tips to keep your goals moving for 2019:

  1. Make sure you have goals written down and easy to find.
  2. Look at your goals daily.
  3. Make time to work on your goals daily, even if you spend a few minutes.
  4. If a goal seems too hard, revise it.  Look at smaller parts of each goal to work on.
  5. Never give up! — Make 2019 your best year yet!

Good Selling or Bad Selling?

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Many years ago, I had one of the best Receptionist/Gatekeeper in business, she understood and could stop non-essential salespeople from getting through.  One day she brought me a package.  It had been hand delivered.

In the package was a T Shirt from my alma mater — Indiana Institute of Technology. There was a note from the salesman requesting an appointment, and comment that he hoped I appreciated his effort to get my school T shirt.  He said he would call in a few days.

I graduated from IIT in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. The idea that this salesman had gone to the trouble to get me the shirt was unique and I liked his style. 

I instructed our receptionist/gatekeeper that I was impressed by this salesperson and that when he calls I will take the call.  After a little research on his company, I was pretty sure I would not need his services.  However, I would listen to him and then if possible direct him to a referral.

He never called!

How many times have you had seemingly good salespeople just not follow through?

Good selling or bad selling?

According to Jim Rohn, philosopher, Life is a collection of …..!

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Life is a collection of experiences, people met, and books read – according to – Jim Rohn. Have you heard of and followed a great life and business philosopher – Jim Rohn? 

I have read his books, articles, listened to tapes and attended his seminars. 

One article captured my attention and prompted a change in my behavior many years ago.  Jim Rohn talked about the habit of keeping a daily journal.  However, he didn’t portray it a standard sit down once a day and write in your journal. He described his previous habit of writing things down continuously all day long, so he wouldn’t forget the thought of the moment. He wrote on scraps of paper, napkins, post notes anything he could find. Then he had a drawer or desk top of papers he couldn't or didn't get organized.

We all want to remember and save ideas of the moment. Get a great idea in your head and decide to write it down later. Many of us either forget all together or don’t feel it important later on, or like Jim Rohn we have a great collection of paper scraps with notes.  That was me.

Jim Rohn thought it best to journal, in a sense, all day long. I didn’t ever see an explanation or example of his journal style, but I did see another person that kept a notebook at his side all the time to just jot down notes of the moment.

Many years ago, I decided this was something worthwhile and started carrying a spiral notebook with a daily date for the two open pages and began writing whatever thoughts I had that seemed important to keep. Some days hardly anything some days filled both pages. 

My books are messy and not organized. I do manage to get on paper thoughts that I don’t want to lose. Then periodically I review the books to see if there is still something I want to pursue.

I sometimes listen to people who want to start journaling but don’t really know how. 

Let me say that because of Jim Rohn I now have books of my life experiences and I attest to – Life according to Jim Rohn is the sum of experiences you have, people you meet, and books you read.

Start keeping a running daily book of life and you will be astonished at how you and your life can be changed and influenced.

Make 2019 your best year yet!

Momentum! Still there for reaching your GOALS?

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I have a goal that I really want to accomplish.  I can't do it in a day or month or probably a year.  It may take 2 to 3 years.  I found myself not working this goal with the same momentum as goals more achievable on shorter terms.  That is probably the human nature side of accomplishment. 

Well — I reaffirmed my three year goal as being very important to me when accomplished.  I have reaffirmed and dedicated daily time 15 – 30 minutes to stay on task. I haven't missed a day this year.  

 My reaffirmation of this goal was easy.  The hard part was not having a very easy to use measurement tool to follow progress.  As much as I hate to admit this, I have a really good tracking system for my goals and accomplishments in life but not a really good tracking system for something new.  I was half heartedly tracking progress but nothing really jumped out to me saying — Hey, you are not on track here.  Now I have a spread sheet that shows Green when on track and Red when off track.

Do you have a measurement system for your important Goals?

I found some old calendars from years ago.  When I wanted to start and follow a goal (Weight, Exercise, Playing the Banjo, Etc.).  I kept the Calendar in a drawer in the bathroom.  I opened that drawer everyday (My hair dryer was in it), and I plotted my daily goal progress. 

Looking back on those calendars I see that I accomplished many life goals.  Do you have a tracking method daily to follow your progress?

Make 2019 your best year yet!

Do you have a solid process for tracking and following sales?

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As a CEO/President for many years I can attest to the following:

According to the National Sales Executive Association,

  • 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
  • Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
  • 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
  • 80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th or more contacts

Sales people need a process, a culture of sales/selling success and on-going training.  I work a daily process for myself. 

We as managers need solid information to see the sales process.  Too many times it is treated as “Magic that just happens”.  I help set up and refine the daily grind of sales measurement.  If interested – Let’s talk!

Make 2019 your best year yet!