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Start the Sales Year Off Right: How to Reach Your Sales Goals

Sales & Marketing

Maybe your last year was a great one--or maybe you’re glad to see it go. Start the year with new strategies to reach your sales goals, and to make the new year a success.

What are you not going to do?

I always think of Albert Einstein at the beginning of every new year. Is it because he had the formula for selling more? Not exactly. He did have a great understanding of what it takes to get better results. He said, “Doing the same things over again and expecting different results is insanity.” I agree. To get better sales results you have to stop doing the things that don’t work for you.

In order to stop doing something, you have to realize what is not working. For example, I find that too many salespeople kid themselves by thinking the prospects they’re talking to are actually going to buy. Another way they kid themselves is by not specifically defining the ideal prospect and comparing those specs to every prospect included in their new year’s objectives.

Think big.

I worked with a salesman who was only comfortable calling on small accounts. The idea of calling on larger accounts terrified him; however, he was never going to meet his sales goals by thinking small. In fact, his company was going to have to let him go. I was called in to work with him to improve his skills and get the results the company wanted.

Don’t be like him. Are you afraid of making sales calls on a specific type of customer? What’s holding you back? You’ll need to work just as hard getting business from a smaller account as you would from a larger business.

Seek strategy advice from another successful salesperson if you can’t move forward, or ask your sales manager for help, if your manager is a good mentor. Start by identifying larger accounts that could be potential prospects, then discuss what your goal is. Ask your sales manager to accompany you on a few sales calls to debrief your work as well as to offer help during the call.

Just be sure you are taking the lead in the sales call. It’s your job to sell, not your manager’s job. He’s there to support you only.

Every new year offers a fresh start. That clean slate may be just enough to motivate you to do what it takes to be even more successful this year. If it’s not, remember what Einstein said: you must do something different to expect to get other results.

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.