Plan Your Sales Success! We are approaching Q4, with only a few months left in the year.  How’d you do?  Did you make your sales quota?  Drive revenue as needed?  Most importantly – did you have a plan and did you follow it?

I have a picture that is tacked on a board in front of my desk.    It includes a quote from Erykah Badu (singer, songwriter and activist) and it says, “I planned my success.  I knew it was going to happen.”  I look at that phrase everyday, and everyday I ask myself if I am planning my success and the success of my team.   It’s a visual reminder to me that we end up based on where we start.   

In 1989 Stephen Covey published the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a business and self-help book designed to facilitate readers on how to attain their goals.  In this book he outlines 7 Habits that lead to greater results based on personal and professional effectiveness.  And although this book was published almost 30 years ago, the basic tenet still rings true.    

Habit Number Two is Begin With End in Mind.   Begin with the End in Mind means to have a clear vision of your path and desired end results.   This can apply to a project, your workday or your annual goals. Without this forward thinking you are unknowingly empowering others and circumstances to determine the outcome of your day, project, year, etc.   It’s a scary proposition to think we let outside forces control our destiny, but yet we do. 

Most people don’t get on a boat with the plan to end up wherever the wind and waves take them.  They know where they want to go and chart a course.  Yet so many people in business metaphorically let the wind and waves drive their business.  They float along and deal with what they encounter, good and bad, and end up where they end up.  The leaders that chart their course and know their destination, are likely to end up where they want to be, not where they randomly land.

Now, this can be said for many choices in life, right?  Relationships, career paths, weight loss.  Plodding along without a plan leaves you vulnerable to everything that is happening around you.  How we achieve our success is about knowing the manner in which something happened.    

Putting pen to paper in order to check the box of having a plan is not the solution either.  Visualize your outcome, and then create the steps needed to attain the goal.  Lastly, be committed to the plan, not merely interested.  Being interested means you do something when it’s convenient, easy or works for you.  Being committed means to do it no matter what, to follow your intention without making excuses. 

Think about this year.  I’m sure there were economic challenges, weather impacts and maybe even personal hardships.  If you planned for success you acknowledged the challenges (and knew how to work around them), but didn’t use them as an excuse for poor performance.   Define what success looks like for you as individual or as a company and create a plan. 

So, as you look at your results for this year, what do you see?  Are you ending the year as intended?  If not, are you ready to plan your sales success for the new year?

This article was written by Christine Miller of Miller Sales Consulting. With extensive experience as a highly strategic sales motivator and sales coach, Christine has excelled at building and structuring sales organizations. More sales advice can be found on her LinkedIn page, as well as Medium. Subscribe to her videos on YouTube.