Happy New Year! We are only a few weeks into the New Year and already the gyms are less full than they were the first week of January and many have already cheated on their diets. Similarly, sales people are already missing their daily sales activity targets, so they are no closer to earning their annual income bonuses this year than they were last year.
Why is it we all start the New Year off with such high hopes, only to let them fall by the way side a short time later? In a word, procrastination!
The dictionary defines procrastination as “to delay or postpone action”. In other words, the problem is not that we don’t want to improve ourselves or that we don’t want to reach our daily sales activity targets, the problem is we chose not to.
After all, that’s what procrastination really is - a choice. It can disguise itself in many ways, with many excuses. There’s the popular “I don’t have time” excuse, closely related to “something came up today” excuse. Of course we cannot forget the “it’s not the right time to get started” excuse.
Please! We all have the same number of hours in a day, we just choose to spend them differently. If something is really important to you, you will find the time and you will act upon it immediately!
The key is you need to know what is truly important to you. What are your goals? What are your aspirations? What is it that you want?
It is a proven fact that top performers have written goals and plans to achieve them. Whether you an entrepreneur running your own business, a sales manager directing a sales team, or a sales rep servicing a territory, you should as well.
If you need help getting started, download the free “Goal Setting and Action Planning Tool” from the B2B Sales Connections Download Centre. But don’t procrastinate. It’s only available for free for a limited time.
After defining your goals, you will probably realize you need to improve or change something about yourself or your behavior in order to achieve them. You may even discover that you need the assistance of others to help you be successful.
If this is the case, then get started and make it happen. But don’t wait to get started, do it today! If you procrastinate, not only is it unlikely that you ever will get started, but you are also saying that the goals you worked so hard at setting are really not that important to you in the first place!
Remember, if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will continue to get what you’ve always got. Why not make this year’s resolution to be resolute? Whatever it is you choose to do, just do it!
Aim Higher!
Susan A. Enns, B2B Sales Connections
Susan A. Enns is managing partner of B2B Sales Connections, a sales coaching website with free sales resources, online sales training, a specialized job board & free resume listing services for business to business sales professionals. She has a proven track record of success, with over 22 years of direct sales, management and executive level business to business experience. Her accomplishments include being the top sales rep in Canada, managing the top sales branch, and achieving outstanding sales growth in a national channel sales organization. She has written the downloadable e-courses “Action Plan For Sales Success” and “Action Plan For Sales Management Success”, created numerous automated sales tools, and she writes and edits the company’s newsletters. Currently Susan serves on the Leadership Executive of the Sales Professionals of Ottawa as President. For more information, visit www.b2bsalesconnections.com or contact Susan directly at senns@b2bsalesconnections.com, www.twitter.com/SusanEnns, or www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns.