It is that time of year when all dedicated sales professionals are not only ending the year strongly, but should also be focusing on what they want to achieve next year. When we have our plan already in place before we return in the New Year, means that we hit the floor running, and we surge into Q1, rather than amble.

Having said that, most people, and I would estimate 80%, because Pareto’s principle is always pretty accurate, will not set objectives and, although it has become a bit of a cliche,  in failing to plan will in effect, be planning to fail.

The greatest difficulty most people have is knowing where to begin, so here are some thoughts that will hopefully assist you in constructing an achievable plan for the next twelve months and beyond.

You have to set yourself goals, become goal orientated and a goal achiever – otherwise you will drift through life like a ship without a rudder hoping to be swept into a “harbor of opportunity” Unfortunately, without a rudder, you are more likely to end up on the rocks and in later life look back in frustration: “I could have” “If only I had” etc, but by then it will be too late.

Do You Have A Life Map? – If Not, Think Of the Pilot:

Before a pilot takes off he knows the distance and the payload; he has assessed the weather conditions at departure and arrival points and he has contingency plans should those conditions dramatically change in any way.

He is the manager of his crew, he is prepared at all times for the unexpected and he is capable of making instant decisions. He is also able to psychologically accept the mundane

What Have You Been In The Past? Making an Honest Appraisal:

The objective of appraising your past performance - whether that is last year or your entire life - is to improve and capitalize on your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses or limitations. Completing a SLOT analysis regularly will help you enormously, and you are probably already aware of it – but do you update yours regularly?

I would also say that many people call this a SWOT analysis, and the W= Weakness. But you know, I think “weakness” sounds far more permanent than “limitation” which can usually be overcome.

The SLOT analysis can be an extremely useful technique for you to think about what you can offer relative to your external environment and helps you to take stock of your position so that you can plan your future development.

S = Strengths:

What can I do well? What are my best skills and attributes? Where do I have the greatest talent? (Try to illustrate your ideas with concrete examples.)

L = Limitations:

What am I less good at? (In which aspects of your work and personal life do you need improvement? Is the improvement needed large or small?)

O = Opportunities:

What is currently happening that can give me the opportunity for personal growth and improved performance? As technology changes and society advances what new opportunities will occur that I can take advantage of?

T = Threats:

What changes or forces may affect my current situation or act as a barrier to future development? Which people might get in the way? How could I sabotage my own development?

The Strengths and Limitations elements are personal to you. Opportunities and Threats lie in the external environment.

Use Your SLOT Analysis to:

• Identify how you can maximize the use of your strengths

• See how you can compensate for your limitations

• Identify opportunities, particularly ones that may not be immediately obvious

• If at all possible, see if threats can be turned into opportunities

What you have been in the past can only have two influences on the present – positive or negative.

I believe that successful people have invisible plastic wings on their shoulders and this prevents them continually looking back: They only take good experiences forward with them, casting off disappointments, errors of judgment and unhappy times.

Negative people on the other hand, do look back over their shoulder often and carry all the bad experiences forward with them in a large sack on their back. They expect the future to be very much the same as the past and it usually is – this is of course, the “Phenomenon of Fulfilled Expectation”

And yet, ask a group of divorcees who have since re-married, if they are happier now with their new partners and you can be sure that they will be.

Ask anyone who has gone through the stressful experience of redundancy and then found another job, if they are not now happier and more secure – they will be.

So you see the future really is better than the past if we choose to make it so; we have to attack the future fearlessly to achieve a better tomorrow.

If you are serious about setting your goals early for 2012, you may enjoy reading the FREE eBook from my library “If it’s to be, it’s up to you – the secrets of effective goal setting”

News: Excellent sales tip from Colleen Francis today, over at Top Sales World - “Define Your Best Customers and Target Them Relentlessly” and in case you missed it, my interview with Tibor Shanto “Has Sales 2.0 Killed Off Cold Calling?” is really worth a listen.

JF Guest Post

Everyone hates meetings, don’t they? They take up so much time and when you are already struggling to clear your ‘to do’ list every day, an invitation to yet another meeting can make your heart sink.

And yet meetings are an accepted and essential element of business life. Statistics suggest that managers spend about half of their time in meetings. So what’s the problem? In many cases, the problem seems to be that the meetings people attend are not much more than talking shops, with little or nothing achieved as a result.

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be like that.

A structure for success …

Following this simple three stage structure will get results:

• Stage 1: Actions before the meeting;
• Stage 2: Actions during the meeting; and,
• Stage 3: Actions after the meeting.

Stage 1: Actions before the meeting
The process of making meetings work begins well in advance. The following should make your meetings more focused, more effective, and therefore more satisfactory for everyone involved:

• clearly define the purpose of the meeting;
• identify who should attend;
• create an agenda, with timings;
• send out all relevant information to invitees beforehand; and,
• organise the venue.

Remember that meeting rooms need to be appropriate. Having three people around a table the size of a rugby pitch can feel as uncomfortable as cramming ten people into a broom cupboard. It is a good idea to research conference venues, as using a good one will free you from the drudgery of meeting everyone individually at reception, organising refreshments, and worrying about audio-visual equipment: all of that will be taken care of for you by the conference venue.

Stage 2: Actions during the meeting
Whenever you attend a meeting, you should be consciously and actively involved and engaged. You have been invited and have chosen to attend because you have something worthwhile to contribute, so make sure you do your best to help the group meet their objectives.

Chairing a meeting
The chair has a number of functions to fulfil, including:
• keeping to time and managing the agenda;
• involving everyone;
• keeping the discussion on track;
• facilitating, not dominating; and,
• ensuring notes are taken and disseminated.

Meetings can be minefields, but by following a basic formula and having a few simple rules, the ones you chair should run according to plan.

First and foremost, always start your meetings on time.

Make introductions: first the topic, to emphasise the objective of the meeting, then the people.

Initiate the business of the meeting. This should be agenda-driven and controlled. Use tactics to keep people to the point and, if you feel a discussion is descending into waffle, try giving each person two minutes or one statement in which they must express their opinion.

Close by summing up. Tell people when to expect meeting notes, and set a time for the next meeting if there is to be one. Always end on schedule. People have allocated an amount of time for the meeting and may well have further appointments to attend. If they are thinking about how far behind schedule they are, then they aren’t concentrating on what you are saying.

Stage 3: Actions after the meeting
The next stage of the process of making meetings work is producing accurate and effective records.

Every meeting should be recorded in some way. Different organisations will have their own requirements, but as a general guide the following should be put on record:

• when and where the meeting took place;
• what it was about;
• who attended, and who was invited but did not attend;
• what happened, with initials to show who did or said what;
• what actions were agreed, with initials and deadlines; and,
• what will happen next.

It is important that these are created and distributed as quickly as possible; if a group of people leave a conference venue all fired up to get on with a project, you need to give them the impetus to continue. They, like you, very probably have many things competing for their attention; make sure your project is at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Last words
If you spend two days a week travelling to and attending meetings, then after just two and a half years you have devoted a whole year of your working life to them. The three stage approach outlined here will help you to achieve your objectives and make it a year well spent.

This article was brought to you by Holiday Inn Meetings, the provider of hotel meeting rooms and conference facilities for your meetings and events.

News: I know you have been eagerly anticipating the publication of November’s Top Sales World Magazine - well be eager no longer, you can download it HERE

The role of a Sales Leader is to translate the organization’s vision, mission and values into a meaningful context that sales teams can relate to and feel excited by. If this is achieved then the Sales Leader will have created a sales team with a shared mental model. This transforms an ordinary sales team into a high performing one.

For clarity, here is a brief description of the following terms:

An organization’s vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a huge goal. It is a description in words that conjures up a picture of the organization’s destination. A compelling vision will stretch expectations, aspirations, and performance. Without that powerful, attractive, valuable vision, why bother?

A mission statement communicates the essence of an organization to its stakeholders and customers, and failure to clearly state and communicate an organization’s mission can have harmful consequences around its purpose. As Lewis Caroll, through the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Guiding principles are the consequence of a mission statement that are intended to inform or shape all subsequent decision-making, which also provides normative criteria allowing policy-makers to accept, reject or modify policy interventions and activities. They are a guiding set of ideas that are articulated, understood and supported by the organisation’s workforce.

Values are beliefs which the organization’s workforce hold in common and endeavor to put into practice. The values guide their performance and the decisions that are taken. Ideally, an individual’s personal values will align with the spoken and unspoken values of the organization. By developing a written statement of the values of the organization, individuals have a chance to contribute to the articulation of these values, as well as to evaluate how well their personal values and motivation match those of the organization.

The Human Capital Development Model, created by Krauthammer International, is a logical process that can take top management concepts, and translate them into a context that has real meaning for staff at all levels.

The key to bringing this model to life is to answer the following questions:
• Do my team understand the organization’s vision and how their role moves the organization closer to achieving it?
• How can my sales team translate the organization’s mission into one that is relevant to them?
• How do the organization’s guiding principles impact on the day-to-day responsibilities of sales people?
• Which of the organization’s values does my sales team relate to?
• How can we interpret these values so they become compelling for each sales person?

An effective sales team understands the big picture and the context of their team’s work to the greatest degree possible. That includes understanding the relevance of their job and how it impacts the effectiveness of others and the overall team effort.

Too often, sales people are asked to work on an activity without being told how their role contributes to organization’s vision, much less how their efforts are impacting the ability of others to do their work. Understanding the organization’s vision promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality.

An effective team works collaboratively and with a keen awareness of interdependency.

Collaboration and a solid sense of interdependency in a team will defuse blaming behaviour and stimulate opportunities for learning and improvement. Without this sense of interdependency in responsibility and reward, blaming behaviours can occur which will quickly erode team effectiveness and morale.

News: As we are discussing sales management and sales leadership roles, allow me to take this opportunity to point you towards Top Sales Management, where we post tremendously valuable new resources every week: A visit across there today will allow you to discover the latest “How To” guide – “How to Motivate Your Sales Team” Also a sales team development session that you can run yourself called “Closing with Ease” plus an opportunity to develop your own skills with “The Essential Art of Delegation” Finally, today’s article comes from Keith Rosen “Challenge Your Lessons”- you really should pop in regularly – HERE