What’s waiting for you in 2000? The answer, of course, is that it’s up to you. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself to help make 2000 the most productive year of your life.
1. Do you have a cause?
Are you in business just to satisfy your personal needs? Is this just a way to make a living? Or is there a bigger reason to get up in the morning?
Facing the daily rigors of selling needs more than an “I-centered” reason for showing up. Write down your reason for doing what you’re doing. Paste it on your bathroom mirror as a daily reminder.
2. Have you burned your bridges?
You can’t get to second base by keeping one foot on first. Have you committed yourself to your profession? If you have, then it really doesn’t matter how difficult any particular day or prospect is.
Focusing on the result makes it all worth it. Can you see where you will be at year-end?
3. Have you put together your business plan?
Having a business plan makes it perfectly clear what you have to do on a day-to-day basis. Not having a plan is like being a squirrel in a cage. It looks like you are on a fast track, but you’re going nowhere.
Each prospect, every call — no matter how successful — has a reason. One day on top of another — well thought out and planned — must result in a successful outcome.
4. Do you have four major goals for 2000?
If you work your plan, what’s in it for you? Have you put together a personal plan of action that will guarantee your reaching the four most important goals you would like to accomplish in 2000?
Have you reduced these goals to pictures to visualize the result? Have you placed them where you can see them on a daily basis?
5. Can you muster the discipline to manage your behavior daily?
One day at a time. Now that you have put your business and personal plan together, will you do what is necessary each day? Do you realize that every day you don’t behave properly puts you a day behind?
Determine the number of days in 2000 in which you must behave properly to meet your goals. Write that number down. Count the days down backward and strike a line through each day where you behave according to plan.
Post this chart where you can see it daily so that you will develop a behavior awareness.
6. How will you stay in front of your “nut?”
Financial pressure is a cancer in your drive for success. Do you know what it costs you to get up each morning?
Total all your expenses, including savings, and the cost of all your achievable goals in 2000 and divide by 365 days — or by the number of working days available to you next year. Most people don’t know their daily cost number — just like most people don’t have written, clarified goals.
Have you figured out how to get off to a fast start to get a financial “cushion?” Have you budgeted your expenses so they don’t run over you? Do you have a savings plan? Have you planned on how to put money aside in case of an emergency?
7. Will you begin over again each day or do you have a system for working smart?
Amateur sales people pride themselves on the number of cold calls they make. Professionals know the best source for their next sale is from a present client.
Do you have a referral system? Are you going the extra miles for your present clients so they want to give you referrals? Do you keep a referral tree?
8. Do you keep a journal?
Successful people learn as much from their mistakes as they do from their successes. Do you document your wins and losses? Do you refer back to them on a consistent basis to benefit from your experiences?
Do you keep a record of the things that work and don’t work for you? Will you be able to write a book on 2000 when the year is over?
9. Do you have a mastermind group?
Have you searched out a support group to help you reach your goals? Do you have the guts to commit to someone else exactly what you want to achieve in 2000?
Are you willing to give as much as you want to your mastermind group?
10. Can you see into the future?
Take time to write out a description of how you will feel and what you will have accomplished when you have achieved the things you want for yourself and your family in 2000.
Capture that feeling. Internalize it. Think about it every day.
Larry Lewis is president of Total Development Inc., a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm specializing in sales development and training. Send comments and questions via fax to (724) 933-9224, e-mail at [email protected] or phone at (724) 933-9110.