How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 3

Everyone has a goal, and in order to achieve that goal you need to know what your specific business goals are. The first step is defining your business goals. But there are many different ways to define goals, and you may be doing things wrong. For example, consider the following:

I want to make an extra $10,000 a month selling _____.

I want my sales meeting rate of 20% week over week.

I want faster customer service when I call the company's customer service line every day at 2pm EST.

I want to increase our weekly prospecting calls by 20%.

I want my staff to know how to listen first, so they can then know how to ask better questions.

I want all of my clients to advance one level in their business this year.

I want a more efficient way for my people to get more referrals. I don't have time for that!

I just can't take these sales calls anymore!

My goal is $$$$.

These are all correct, but incomplete goal statements nonetheless. Here's the complete statement and a nice simple five-step process you can use when setting goals.

I want to increase my sales by 10% month over month, starting the first full quarter after I hire and fire, so that come the end of 12 months I can double my sales.

Step 1: Break down your goal into smaller goals. For this goal we will break it into smaller steps:

• Hire and fire

• Prepare for hiring and firing

• Get more new leads than we lose

• Build a new process to hire and fire fast and efficiently – without wasting time or money

Step 2: Break down each small goal into an action plan. For this, we will use these planks for each step:

1. Hire and Fire

• Learn the art of hiring and firing in three months

• Prepare staff for hiring and firing

• Get 30 new leads per month faster than we can lose them

• Get 10 new appointments per month faster than we can lose them

Step 3: Break down each action plan into milestones. For this goal, we need nine milestones:

1.1 Learn the art of hiring and firing in three months – learn to do this in 50 hours, spending no more than 8 hours a week on it. This will take five weeks from today by itself. Check off every 5 hours as you go along. After 5 hours, write your planks. And if you fail just pick up where you left off next week.

1.2 Prepare staff for hiring and firing – spend the rest of your time (50 hours weekly) preparing for this step, writing the planks for this step, and completing the milestones.

1.3 Get 30 new leads per month faster than we can lose them – spend 20 hours on this.

1.4 Get 10 new appointments per month faster than we can lose them – spend 20 hours on this.

Step 4: Create a list of companies from which to get all those leads you've learned how to use better in Step 1, 2 and 3 above; a list of industries that will grow your business

• List the companies in each industry that will grow your business by 5% year over year.

• Make a list of all the industries that will grow your business by 5% year over year.

• Add the names of their CEOs and industry contacts to your list of 100 leads

Step 5: Set an appropriate timeline for accomplishing all nine milestones and before you can achieve your goal.

We have employees who are ready to go, we can get 30 new leads per month faster than we lose them, we can do that in 25 days, and we'll set a target date for achieving this milestone. If it looks like we won't make it, we'll reset. We'll commit to having our first firing, no more than three months after hiring 10 people every single month, on December 31st this year.

And since we don't have the luxury of time, we'll work on this goal everyday. We'll ensure that our staff works on this goal every week.

What's the bottom line?

I want to create a predictable force of growth in my business that is calibrated to my expectations and I want it done by December 31. I want a process where these actions are accomplished as fast as humanly possible, but not so fast that I don't have time to fit these activities into my already-busy schedule.

And those are the steps I use to define business goals and lay out work that I can do to accomplish my goal. These steps will help you stick to your goals again and again.

So next time you want to create a specific business goal, think… "I want … so I need to know  … so I need to know how ______." Then draw your planks on paper with the first three words following each other in this exact order: "Step 1, 2 and 3."

And follow that up with the five-step process.

And here's another video by James Peltz on achieving your goal this year. He explains his Business Goal-Setting Process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htsX9cOZG5Y

Copy+Paste + Yield = Success?

I want to double my sales this year.

I want to increase my sales by 10% month over month, starting the first full quarter after I hire and fire, so that come the end of 12 months I can double my sales.

Step 1: Stop copying!

You are not a machine. You are not a mind reader. You don't know what someone's response is going to be before they respond. Trust me, they are not going to be thanking you for being a mind reader and forcing them into buying whatever it is you're selling.

They're going to be thanking you for understanding their needs, listening to them and asking them questions that allow you to connect with them on a personal level. You're going to be thankful when someone shares their story. You don't need to start each call with "Hi, how are you?" because they'll be telling you how they are.

Conclusion

That's it. You've taken the most important steps to become a better salesperson and have learned some really simple and actionable steps. You can remember this information. You can do this each night before you go to bed. And if you don't apply these steps and instead continue to copy others, you will not be successful in your sales career.

"I pay more attention to what people say than I do to what they do.