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Podcast: The Power of SMART Goals

Apr 1, 2024 7:00:00 AM

Copy of Copy of ACT AS IF-21-1

 

Symptoms:
Sam has been in sales for her entire career. She knows she does well enough as she has climbed the ranks through various companies, but she tends to plateau with medium accounts. Sam has yet to earn some of the major accounts and or territories that make salespeople’s careers. She has always been one to read all the top business books, listen to podcasts every chance she got, attends conferences, and even enrolled in a few training classes that promised to help her reach the next level, but nothing ever changed, despite putting all the things she learned into practice immediately. Sam felt ready to make some significant life changes on her own and earning more commissions would make it all possible. Now, she really wanted to see if it was her turn to be one of the big-time players.

Diagnosis:
Sam has fallen into the “Learn It All" mentality. With so many mediums to find information and expand what we know, it is easy to switch on a podcast, watch TED talks on YouTube, scan the bestsellers on iPads or hit a bookstore and pick up something with the latest, greatest sales advice and success strategies. It is easy for Sam and lots of eager young professionals to get sucked into buzzwords and trendy topics as they look for a magic bullet to cure their dissatisfaction. She takes copious notes and starts adding all she learns all at once.

Prescription:
It is admirable that Sam is always willing to spend her own time on learning to improve her craft, but what she needs to be aware of is making too many changes all at once. Reading, listening, and watching to improve oneself is something everyone should do. The next step needs for Sam to find one, two or maybe three areas to change and work on those first. Trying to develop new habits at once can cause most people nothing but frustration, and that makes people return to their old habits. New habits and skills require a commitment to practice them before make a significant impact. Sam needs to set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timebound) goals and make sure her WHY is compelling enough to see these changes through. Like many people that get too excited about the big opportunity that sales can offer, Sam needs to give up trying to eat the elephant in one big bite.

Critical Thinking: 
Have you ever been in Sam’s shoes? Have you tried to make too many changes at once only to fall short on everything you wanted to change? How did you recover after that 
happened?

The Drill:
Final Thought for the Morning:

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” - Albert Einstein 

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” - Voltaire

Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week

LAST WEEK: 
Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.

THIS WEEK: 
Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.