3 Skills you need to succeed in business!
I have a question for you? Why do some salespeople hit their goals and others fall short? I know there may be exceptions to losing a significant account that could impact your year. Aside from that, there is one reason.
Accountability! Yes, the difference is that those understand that their success starts with them!
They don’t wait and watch others do it; they do it.
It starts with you! You set the tone for your day.
We hold ourselves accountable. The definition of accountability is an obligation and willingness to accept responsibility. We are proactive, acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes.
Yes, we need accountability skills?
What Are Accountability Skills?
Accountability is taking ownership of your actions. It is being responsible for you and your results. When you are accountable, you are committed to the goal and outcome. More importantly, committed to making progress.
Here are 3 Tips to hold yourself accountable!
Set Your Own Goals and Accountabilities
Goals are the expectations. Accountabilities are where you stand and what needs to be changed.
Once you determine your goal, what is the process to achieving them?
I love James Clear’s quote from Atomic Habits book “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
What is your system to ensure you not only achieve and exceed your goal?
You have to understand where you stand today with your business to know what systems and steps you need to take next.
Once you have determined your goal break it into a more manageable and actionable short-term plan.
For example, if you need to generate $2,000,000 in revenue annually, you know your short-term goal is to generate $500,000 each quarter.
You must close ten accounts each quarter if your average sale is $50,000.
Or your accounts may vary; you close a few $75,000 accounts and grow your current account base by $25,000.
The accountability skill is understanding your numbers and owning them!
Own your Opportunities
Do you have enough clients to exceed your goal? More importantly, have you planned for account attrition? It happens to all of us. For example, your best account goes with another vendor.
According to Marketing at Work, the average business loses about 10 to 25 percent of its customers yearly.
Accountability skill number two is having enough clients and new prospects in your pipeline.
Do you have enough opportunities to reach your quarterly goals? This tends to be an area most of us fall short of. A pipeline review is all the opportunities you are pursuing and where they are in the sales process.
To understand your pipeline, start by asking yourself these questions:
How many opportunities do I presently have in my pipeline?
What is the total value of these opportunities? 25% of the accounts we have as a target are not a fit for our products. Let’s remove those.
What percentage of these opportunities would I have to win to make my number?
Do I have enough business to make my number this quarter?
Have I factored my 10-25% attrition rate into the quarter?
The next question we have to answer is, are your activities producing the desired outcomes?
How well is your plan working?
What changes do you need to make? Conducting these self-reviews will allow you to understand what’s working, what’s not, and what changes need to happen.
Be honest with yourself.
Accountability skill number three, Honesty, is the best policy! Be honest with where you are today and what you need to do moving forward.
Hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else will.
Do I have enough accounts and business to exceed my goal? What is one adjustment I can make today?
How do I attract more new clients?
Can I upsell my current accounts?
What do my future opportunities look like today?
What process do I need to do to ensure my next month improves?
What have I learned? What needs to change? What is working? What do I need to do more of in the future?
I recommend scheduling a meeting on your calendar for a self-review on the first day of each month. We don’t want to wait for our end-of-year review; it will be too late to make the adjustments.
Taking responsibility and owning the result, regardless of the circumstances, will allow you to make adjustments and improve in the future.
Successful people do things that the unsuccessful aren’t willing to do. They create better systems, look for ways to improve daily, and take action.
I will leave you with this phrase: If it’s to be, it’s up to me!
Learn more about Simplifying Your sales meetings using 3-word topics at http://www.threewordmeetings.com.