Some questions for you...
Do you know where you're heading? In work? Away from work? In Life? Where is it all leading to? Does it have to lead anywhere anyway? A bit deep for a Wednesday? Maybe. Let's drill it down to your business, even your sales, especially your sales... What actions are you taking to get you to where you want to go?
That's assuming you know where you want to go!
How much of a plan have you got? So many sales professionals I meet have lack-lustre goals, if they have any at all; "I want to reach budget", "I want to achieve the annual bonus", "I want to progress", "I want more money" and so on. Often not specific. Often just so so.
How about sprucing things up a little?
You can have mere wishes... ...or you can have
dynamic expectations that really motivate you to reach for the stars. When you have mediocre goals - and let's face it, "I want to reach target" is fairly mediocre, you're setting yourself up to be ordinary.
Shouldn't you really be aiming for
outstanding? It's wonderful to experience the curiosity and confidence of young children. They believe that everything is possible. But what happens between the age of children and teenage years? And beyond? Something comes up that gets in the way of those early dreams.
It's all about
expectations I'm not sure who said this but I wholeheartedly agree with it...
"You don't get what you want in life; you get what you expect". There's a massive difference. Most people expect ordinary. In fact many sales people expect ordinary. Many business owners expect ordinary. That's fine if you want ordinary - because that's exactly what will show up...
'better to aim low and not be disappointed' and all that. But what if you've had enough of ordinary? What if you want more? To start with, how about
expecting more? What if you decide that instead of settling for mid table in your sales league you expected to be in the top three? Instead of growing your business at 5% next year, what if you decided to expect 10% growth? And instead of converting your leads at the same 25% as the last few years, how would expecting a conversion rate of 35% sound?
Goals I don't know where you are right now on your journey but what I do know is that most people who don't achieve the things they want in life usually have pretty mediocre goals and mediocre expectations to start with.
How often do you start work with clear outcomes to achieve that day? How often do you set really aspirational objectives for the month? How engaged are you with the goals of your team?
Challenge yourself... How could you increase your expectations tomorrow? Or today! What would your new expectations be for Friday 20th June 2014? What does real
sales success mean for you? Maybe in terms of units sold, revenue, profit, lead conversion? What should you really be expecting in your career between now and three years from now? Where do you expect to be? What are you expecting to be doing? And who with?
Play with this. Imagine. You already know that tomorrow's realities start with today's thoughts -- so get thinking! Put some meat on the bones. Really raise those expectations. Get used to wearing them. Be comfortable with them. That's where you're heading after all.
Raise your expectations and you'll have started a journey. A journey that will encourage your brain to deliver new, better and imaginative ideas to achieve those expectations and goals.
Think Big: Expect Big: Plan Big: Act Big
Until next time.
Leigh PS: Check out my recent article for O2's "The Business" -
Click Here to access "Losing Sales? Here's Why" For previous 'Tricks of the Trade' go here
"You don't get what you want in life; you get what you expect."
Leigh...you believe there is a massive difference between the two. Would you be kind enough to elaborate please? I actually agree with you but am in the process of debating with someone that believes the opposite!
Hi Paul. Most people want things that are out of their current reach but either consciously or unconsciously they don't really ever expect to get them. they might say they want this, and that, but there's no inner conviction to actually start to move towards what they want.
There's a far greater chance of actually getting what they want if they also EXPECT to get it. This has to be aligned with a plan - and marking out the milestones along the way. Initially it's a subtle but cruciual mindset change - which then triggers of the planning and plotting of how to get to that particualr destination.
At The Sales Consultancy we're working on a plan that would quadruple our annual turnover within 2 years. We've always wanted to do that, of course - but we never expected to deep down initially because we hadn't filled in the gaps of how we are going to do it. Once we put some journey details in place, it's now a natural journey we are on. We've got our heads around the massive growth involved, picthed our milestones - and taking action .
At the other end of the scale and back to your point. Most people only expect mediocrity - so gues what happens!! "Stuff" is stopping their thinking - lack of confidence, limiting beliefs about their ability - and so forth.
The cycle should be plot the goals, expect to get there - plan - expect - plan - expect.
Hope this helps - Leigh
Leigh, almost everyone i know tell me: "keep your expectations low". I never agreed, was always rebellious about it. Why should i expect less, when i give all? when my input is 100% why people make less effort? Yes i know i can not allow those people to impact me, my mindset and motivation. but people, their words make our world. World is a huge community and once i set a goal, i set my expectations very high. I also understand that setting unreasonable, unreachable goals are not the right approach which sooner or later will lead to self destructive disappointment. But reasonably high set expectation makes life more interesting, challenging and of high quality.
100% agree Salima - thanks for your comments