I see people spinning their wheels all the time getting nowhere. They see the next bright shiny object and off they go, once again. The worst is when you see someone who can’t keep focused on their goals. It usually means they don’t have one. It pretty simple to realize that if you don’t have a road to follow and a compass on hand, you may end up going in circles. Have you defined your goals? Have you come up with a mission statement? Does your company have its own mission statement? What are you all about anyway?
If you are a salesperson working for a company, take the time to define exactly how much in sales you will need to do each month to accomplish your personal goals and take care of your family. That will be your minimum. Then work it through. How much commission do you make off of each sale? If you add that all up, how many sales on average would you have to make each month, each week, each day to get there. Once you’ve defined the numbers, how many actual client contacts must you make each day to make that many sales? Then finally, how many calls each day must you make to keep your pipeline full and make actual contacts. In my experience as a sales manager over the years, I’ve seen some of my best salespeople be able to make 80 to 100 actual phone calls each day with at least 20 actual client contacts. A contact is where you actually talk to a client and accomplish some small item to move the sale ahead. Where are you in this? Are you willing each day to make the commitment it’s going to take for you to accomplish your goals? I’ve prepared this little story to illustrate what working smart is all about. It’s an oldie but goodie.
A Tale of Two Lumberjacks
Two lumberjacks were given axes and told to go into the woods to cut down trees. The first lumberjack found a tree and started chopping. He chopped all day without stopping. The second lumberjack also did his share of chopping, but kept stopping once in a while during the day. He’d walk away, and then come back a few minutes later. The first lumberjack just kept working.
At the end of the day, the second lumberjack had cut more wood than the first. The first was much more tired than the second. What happened?
The second lumberjack who took breaks went to go sharpen his axe. The point is that both had the same tool, but only one took the time to learn how to use it properly. Work smarter, not harder.
We all get the same tools. We have the same rules. Some of us learn how to use our tools better than others. The playbook is not as important as the execution. Is your execution of the tools that you have getting any better? Your ability to carry out the “execution” of the plan can make you better than your competition. It can give you the success you need.
