SalesHQ

Step 10: Set Your Goals for Your First Year

Once you have reached your goal of entering your dream career in professional sales, its time to develop a whole new set of goals. Now comes the fun part: closing deals and making money.

Create some goals for your first year and run them by someone else at your company. Make sure they are ambitious, but not unrealistic. Setting goals that are too high will make you feel like a failure when you need not. Remember, you are new to sales, and your first year is about learning and refining your technique.

The realization of your goals depends on your ability to visualize these objectives in concrete terms and commit to these terms with full purpose.

Use the following tips to help you set and achieve your goals.

Discover Your Target

Define Your Values: Make a list of the things you want. Most people are unclear about their desires. Sure, you want to make more money, but why? What are your ultimate dreams? Put your list into categories: personal, professional, spiritual and any other areas that represent your value system. Number them according to priority.

Be Proactive: How many times have you set your goals based on what was expected of you instead of upping your level of commitment to produce beyond the expected? Don’t base your expectations on past failures. Think and dream like a child; don’t concern yourself with the details before you set your goal.

Track Your Target

Create a Ritual: Review your goals every day, morning, noon and evening for seven to 14 days, until you have them memorized. If you get off course, focus on what you need to do at that moment to refocus.

Assess the Risks Involved: When you are purpose-driven, you consciously take calculated risks. Research the risks you could take to accomplish your dreams and make educated decisions about taking them; think of them as chances you should consider taking to approach your goal.

Address the Risks Involved: List the expected obstacles, and think of solutions to these challenges. What needs to change? Evaluate your current level of commitment. What resources will you need to accomplish your goals? Ask yourself: “What am I prepared to sacrifice in order to meet my objective?” For example, your current income is $125,000 and your target income for next year is $175,000. How will you generate an extra $50,000? Where will it come from? What type of sacrifice do you need to make in order to reach your reward?

Master Your Trade: List the organizations you could join that may help you in overcoming your obstacles. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, says that “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but instead those that will not learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Pace Yourself: When setting your goals, develop a group of pacesetters. We have four financial quarters each year; evaluate the success of your goals every three months. Break your annual goal into quarters by planning, evaluating and taking an honest inventory of your level of contribution.

Terminate with Your Success

At each stage of your pacesetting process, upon careful consideration, evaluate and record all accomplishments and look for ways to terminate your less-than-desirable results. Never give up. Remember: You are the director; if something is not working, change the script.

Congrats and good luck in selling! – SalesHQ

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