AM helping you have your best year ever. Slowly giving you the elements you need to succeed past your competition, past your bosses quota, even past your kids. So far, I’ve given you the first five elements of how to have your best year ever. 1. Define yourself. 2. Develop a sales mission statement. 3. Have a deep belief in the three critical areas of selling. 4. Develop greater pride in accomplishment. 5. You are what you eat. Here are the next three elements to master: 6. Get rid of one time-waster. I’m asked one question more than any other: “Jeffrey, how can I better manage my time?” Let me give you the answer to that question: You already know what to do with your time – what are you asking me for? I’m going to write a book on time management entitled, ‘You Already Know What to Do, You’re Just Not Doing It’. You don’t need a course in time management (which by the way I consider the biggest waste of time). What you need is a lesson in how not to procrastinate. It’s not a matter of managing your time, it’s a matter of doing what you know you have to do – but are just not doing it. The easiest way for me to describe this procrastination situation is to offer you a tip – a time management tip. Here it is: Get rid of one thing that is currently wasting your time. The example I most often give is watching TV news programs, or watching television dramas. If you spent as much time studying how to get your voicemail messages returned as you did watching some stupid television show, in a year you could be a world-class expert, giving seminars for high fees on how to get your voicemail returned. You don’t need to manage your time, you need to allocate your time. You need to invest your time in things that matter, in things that will build your success, and in things that will allow you to have your best year ever. 7. Read a book every two months. My friend, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, says: “The only difference between where you are now, and where you will be this time next year, are the people you meet and the books you read.” If you’re going to read a book, make it a book that you can learn from, and make it a book that will help you have your best year ever. I have a list of suggested reading on my website. Go there and find it. And while we’re on the subject of quotes, let me give you another one. Jim Rohn, America’s business philosopher says: “All the information you need to succeed already exists. The problem is, you’re not exposing yourself to it.” If you want to have your best year ever, expose yourself to the best information possible. This might also include getting to know people that are having their best year ever, and forming a mastermind group so you can build off of each other’s strengths. 8. Get your pipeline full. Most salespeople wait until the end of the month, in panic mode, to try to close the one deal that they absolutely need in order to make their goal or quota. My question to you is, why are you only focusing on one deal? Why don’t you have 20 deals you’re working so that three or four of them pop-in? I’ll give you two guarantees: 1. The one deal you’re praying for will never come about. 2. If you have 20 deals you’re working, three or four will always come about. Why would you put yourself in a losing position? When, with just a little bit more hard work – you can have your best year ever. The secret lies in the word pipeline. Your sale has a cycle to it, and a timeline. If it takes 90 days for you to complete a sale, you need 10 sales a month, and it takes you four appointments to make one sale, then 40 appointments a month is the minimum. Sixty appointments a month will guarantee your numbers. Eighty appointments a month will blow your numbers away. And by the way, to define pipeline a little further, if it takes you four calls to make one appointment, you need to make 320 calls to make 80 appointments. Some of you listening to me are thinking the numbers I have given you are unrealistic. There’s a reason for that – you’re a small thinker. Smart salespeople figure out a way to get their company to hire sales support people. Or in many cases, hire them themselves. If you’re going to make a lot of money, the first rule is, you can’t keep all of it. The government teaches you that. There are college fraternities that specialise in future salespeople, interns who would be willing to work like dogs – eager hungry dogs – to help you set appointments. But let me get back to your pipeline: it is the single indicator of what kind of month, and what kind of success you are going to enjoy, or lament. The simple truth is, if you’re not closing enough deals, it’s because you don’t have enough deals pending. Fill your pipeline, and you’ll fill your wallet. Now you have eight of the 20.5 elements. I know it’s progressing slower than you want, but hey, it’s about having your best year ever, and I want to be certain you have all the information possible to make that happen. There will be several parts to this piece and the entire article will be available on my website after the last part has run. The mission continues: Return next week for part four of how to have your best year ever. In the meantime, I’d love to know what you are doing to have your best year ever. Send an email to bestyear@gitomer.com and all ideas will be posted on my site. Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on sales and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com © 2006 All Rights Reserved - Don’t reproduce this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer . 704/333-1112 www.gitomer.com
