New Years Sales Resolutions
Angela Brown / Sales Wellness

New Years is here again and it’s time for that speech about setting new sales goals, new customer service goals and new personal development goals. But instead of just rehashing last years’ list of  ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ how about committing this year to personal behavioral changes that will in turn promote the professional goals that will keep us in business in a declining economy and a competitive marketplace?

Behavioral Change #1: Persistence

• Persistence opens strange and exciting doors. If you are wooing a client and you have weeks of emotional investment and time tied up in your offer and they reject it, so what? Go back to the drawing board, restructure it and come back for another play. Most sales are not made until after the sixth “no.” Be polite, be professional and be persistent.

Richard Carlson, Ph.D., lecturer and best selling author of the “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” series shares in his latest book “What about the Big Stuff?” behavioral changes #2 & #3:

Behavioral Change #2: Stop Worrying

• Many of us worry about some big things that are yet to come or might never come. We worry about finances, natural disasters, emergencies, terrorism and acts of war, health, aging, illness, death, and catastrophes, among other things. Some things we have a capacity to prepare for, at least to a small degree. Other things, of course, are totally beyond our control. Worry interferes with our quality of life.

Behavioral Change #3: Learn from the Big Stuff

• Learn from the big stuff. Everybody eventually has to deal with big stuff. Weddings, the birth of children, the death of your parents or friends, a new job, moving, getting a promotion, or maybe even being fired. It is the big stuff that makes us human, vulnerable and creates a lasting emotional impact. Some of life’s biggest lessons are buried deep in the lining of the big stuff. If something big is happening to you, stop, stand back, reflect on the situation and celebrate the opportunity for personal growth and development.

Behavioral Change #4: Consolidate

• Clean up your workstation and remove clutter from your life. Get rid of junk that consumes your office or cube. Toss out magazines, files, mail, papers, dead ink pens, broken staplers or stacks of paper that are waiting to be recycled. Consolidate your stuff, your space and your energy for a clean working and selling environment.

Behavioral Change #5: Concentrate

• It is easy to fritter away a morning getting ready to make sales calls, drinking coffee, visiting about last night, (roommates, parents, spouses, kids and the holidays). Kick off every morning with sales calls to hot prospects. Just the act of making calls will get you wound up enough to approach that prospect that has been simmering on the back burner. The marketplace is ripe with unemployed and qualified candidates who are willing to take the place of a salesperson with scattered concentration.

Behavioral Change #6: Follow Up

• Make your number one question this year “Mind if I keep you posted?” When prospects tell you “no, we are not interested, don’t have the need, can’t use your service, don’t care about new business…” simply ask them if you can stay in touch. Keeping a prospect posted is a non-threatening sales call/ follow up call, to let them know about discounts you are offering, sales you have, new services released, updates on your company website, statistic reports, information about competition, and birthday greetings. Get their permission to follow up, and then stay in touch. When your prospect is ready to buy, you want your name to be the first that comes to mind.

Behavioral Change #7: Repetition

• They say that practice makes perfect and we know from the sports history hall of fame that the players who command the biggest salaries are those who are willing to do the simple basics over, and over, and over, and over, and over. Successful salespeople are the same. They command the biggest salaries, commissions and accounts by doing a half a dozen simple things like clockwork. It is not so much that they are smarter than the others; they have simply mastered the art of repetition. If you hate selling, are insecure, or have hidden obstacles that keep you from closing a sale, become repetitious in your selling approach. Passionate repetition takes the fear out of your job so you don’t have to worry and fret every time you pick up the phone.

Angela Brown © 2002, Brown is the CEO; of Sales Wellnessä an international training company for commissioned salespeople. To boost your sales contact her at Angela@WordsofWellness.com or 704-849-2900. Look for her latest book The Magic Marketing Mix in bookstores April 2003.