It is hard to believe but we are already one month down in 2019. January is over next week even though it seems like New Year’s Eve was a week ago. Time does fly, particularly if you are in sales. That feeling can be exacerbated when you look at that big sales goal you are facing for this year and you look at how slowly you got out of the gate. Do you get the feeling that you are already too far behind and have no chance to catch up? If so, read on and consider changing your approach to achieving your goals.
First, your mind doesn’t want to, and in almost every case cannot manage a goal that long in duration. For whatever reason human beings are pre-programmed to operate most effectively on 90-day schedules. That length of time allows you to see the end without it being so far away that procrastination and distraction can derail your commitment. So, change your perspective from 365 to 90-day time segments. Coincidentally, that is a quarter of the year.
Second, by moving to 90-day periods you can recover if you have one bad quarter. The failure won’t take you completely out of the 365-day game. You can also look for ways to improve a shorter time period and overachieve to compensate for the quarter that missed the mark. One small failure is easier to absorb than dealing with a huge failure that has no chance of being rescued.
Lastly, reviewing 90-day periods of time allows you to course correct your process steps for faster recovery. By tracking your short-term success, you can diagnose where you need to improve tactically. Looking at a year in review often doesn’t support debriefing and adjustment soon enough for effective performance. The sense of urgency to hot that 90-day goal by adjusting your process is easier to maintain than working on the full year’s goal. By fully committing to the short-term goal you can maintain the energy and focus to win more consistently.
Your companies and sales managers will still hand you that big picture goal that you must look at every day but do yourself and them a favor and break that sucker down into more manageable pieces. Statistics will prove out that by creating shorter term initiatives success becomes more attainable.
