Sales & Sales Management Newsletter
For Better Results, Goals & Success

Sales Tip: A Goal Setting Controversy

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SITUATION

Mary Sue was going through her yearly dreams and goals review with her sales team in January. Billy Bob’s goal was to increase his sales. Betty Jane wanted to reduce her credit card debt. Sarah wanted to get in better shape and loose some weight. The entire sales team had one thing in common: they all missed their goals for 2006. In fact at the end of the year, not one had even come close to his or her dreams and goals. Now they began to view themselves as failures, and that negative believe was impacted their self-worth.

PROBLEM

People start each year out with the best of intentions regarding goals. Unfortunately, those intentions often go unrealized because they were sabotaged from the start. Sales people, sabotage their goals because they do not take the time to learn and master several critical sales competencies such as Commitment, Destination, Compass and Exercise Program.

SOLUTIONS

For many years Mary Sue exposed her team to the S M A R T acronym for setting goals. This is a very solid proven method that will help each person on Mary Sue’s team achieve his or her goals. It starts with isolating the “why”. Why does something personally inspire you?  What are the benefits to achieving your goals? “Why” are those benefits a value to you? The “why” has to be greater than the “what”. Next goals must meet the S M A R T criteria.

In other words goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Relevant and Tracking to your values and vision. Recently, Mary Sue thought that she might have found the hidden driver that may be the missing ingredients to blowing past the traditional S M A R T goal- setting process. The information was provided by Robert Middelton, and it goes something like this:

“But why do you want to set goals that are possible? You want to set goals that are impossible. (At least from your current point of view.) You want to set goals that set you on fire.

Goals that take passion, sweat, blood and tears to achieve. I'm not suggesting you become totally unreasonable, but at least partially unreasonable! It will take you places you hadn't dreamed of before (maybe even through time).

What kind of things am I talking about? The amount of money you can make in a year Most hope to make more; some plan to make more; and some shoot for the starts and actually make a whole lot more. (And usually have a blast doing it.) What would happen if you tripled your income this year? Unreasonable, but not impossible.

The kind of clients and projects you can attract
You could get virtually anyone as a client if you set your mind to it. Perhaps not tomorrow, but sooner than you think. I've seen it happen over and over with my clients and group participants in just two or three months. They went for it and it happened.

Creating and implementing a huge project
You can play it safe and decide to write that book or develop that program or launch that project someday (not technically a day of the week). Or you can start it now. Why keep putting off yours until a more reasonable time?

"OK, Robert, I appreciate the pep talk, do you have some tips to get me off the dime and set some unreasonable goals? You're right; I do think too small and I get stuck. And I want to think bigger and really go for it. How?"

Glad you asked. Here are a few things I've learned. I give you my not-so-famous I.T.O.C.A. Formula:

1. IMAGINE you're on your deathbed looking back. And you say to your loved ones gathered around, "You know I've had a pretty good life, but I really wish I'd done X." What is X? That's your unreasonable goal.
2. THINK about it all the time. Don't push it out of your mind. Obsess about it; brainstorm and draw mind maps. Get the idea out of the abstract and into the concrete. Form a mastermind group and kick around ideas. Make it real.
3. Be aware of OPPORTUNITIES and coincidences that present themselves. You couldn't see them before, but now, with increased focus on your goal, you'll start seeing, reading, and hearing about things that are connected to your goal. Explore these things. They're there to help you.
4. When the time is right, make a COMMITMENT. On the TV poker shows they talk about going "ALL IN." Don't hold back. Make a promise, not based on knowing how to achieve your goal, but on your desire to make it real. If you have to know how ahead of time, you'll never take the leap.
5. ACTION. Now it's time for the real work and that consists of putting one foot in front of the other every single day. Keep things alive by creating action plans, researching, asking for assistance, and networking with like-minded people. In other words, create an environment in which the goal can be realized.
   

Imagine, Think, Opportunities, Commitment, Action: I.T.O.C.A. Now that's a pretty bad acronym compared to S.M.A.R.T., but I promise you it's a better formula for getting what you truly desire.

Mary Sue suggested her sales team consider both acronyms in helping them achieve their 2007 goals.