As the tune of television commercials switches from holiday gifts to gym memberships, a new year in the making brings with it a wave of potential.
This potential, however, is often met with a barrage of naysayer statistics, such as:
80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.
Only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s Resolutions.
If you’re in the midst of establishing both personal and professional goals for the year ahead, this kind of data shouldn’t deter you from doing so. Rather, it should be used as supporting evidence for creating goals that are both actionable and achievable.
For salespeople, think of your professionally-based resolutions as you would SMART goals. In defining them, they should each be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Applying this type of criteria to your goal-setting in the year ahead provides a necessary framework for seeing them through to fruition.
Consider how you might apply the above parameters to these New Year’s sales resolutions to make in 2019:
New Year’s Sales Resolution #1: Make More Cold Calls
Cold calling often gets a bad rap — especially when compared to alternative methods of inbound lead generation. Why cold call when you could warm call?
And of course, reaching out to an organization that has already shown interest in your product or service sounds preferable. They’ve given you an incentive to reach out and set the odds in your favor for further nurturing.
If you can overcome the idea of rejection and approach cold calling from a more data-centric mindset, it becomes another powerful tool at your disposal.
For example, rather than simply cold calling blindly, track how many calls it takes to actually secure a closed won deal. With averages in mind (and plenty of pitching practice), the numbers game over time allows you to more methodically target potentially interested parties with ease.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #2: Leverage Data to Your Advantage
Data is your friend. And thanks to technology, it’s now easier than ever to leverage for the sake of refining your sales techniques.
With Cirrus Insight features like Attachment Tracking, you no longer send collateral into the email abyss and hope for the best. Analytics paint a picture of who’s opened what, how long they’ve spent engaging with a document, and whether it was viewed to completion.
Knowing what’s resonating with who and when gives you greater agency over how to further engage with prospects in a way that moves them further down the funnel. It also allows you to gauge trends for the sake of developing better content over time that truly supports and complements the desired end result.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #3: Attend More Networking Events
The larger your network, the greater your pool of potential prospects. After all, when you make connections at an event, you’re not only making connections with those in attendance — but also their already-established networks as well.
Similar to cold calling, it’s a numbers game. And when you think back to the SMART goal framework, setting a realistic number of networking events you want to attend each month feeds into specific and measurable ways you can achieve more intangible New Year’s sales resolutions (like: make more sales).
Use each instance as an opportunity to put learned networking advice to work and reap the rewards that follow.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #4: Update Your CRM Regularly
Setting a New Year’s sales resolution around administrative tasks may seem counterproductive to overall productivity, but these types of short-term upkeep save you time in the long run.
Make it a goal to set aside a defined amount of time every month or week — depending on opportunity volume and what makes sense for your team — to update all necessary information in Salesforce. This not only sets you up for success from a personal organization standpoint but can also feed positively into the post-purchase process.
All of the notes and information you detail about a client on your CRM is not simply for your own memory’s sake. When done right, it also provides a foundation for customer success teams during the onboarding process.
Cirrus Insight’s Salesforce Integration allows you to more seamlessly add data into your CRM directly from your inbox, saving you time and keeping your team in sync.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #5: Dress the Part
There’s something to be said for faking it ‘til you make it. Even if the past year was more lackluster than profitable, you can certainly help in boosting your productivity and confidence by dressing nicer.
Studies have shown that casual attire, especially for remote workers, can have a negative effect on their ability to get things done.
It’s a matter of perception. When you show up dressed for success, your actions follow suit (literally). Even if your office veers on the casual side, make it a point to dress up at least one day a week throughout the year ahead for the sake of altering your mindset.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #6: Manage Your Mindset
Along those same lines, managing mindset goes well beyond what you wear into the office. It translates into the variety of unconscious things you may be doing to ruin your sales close.
What is your body language really saying during prospect meetings? Do you find yourself giving more excuses as to why a sale isn’t closing than positive takeaways? Is it more common for you to talk non-stop rather than sit back and listen when the heat of an impending sale is on?
Try to be more aware of your day-to-day actions, and make it a New Year’s sales resolution to solicit feedback regularly for the sake of better understanding potential areas of improvement.
New Year’s Sales Resolution #7: Keep Learning
Regardless of whether you’re a newbie or seasoned pro, learning throughout a career in sales is something that should remain constant. Consider making one of your New Year’s sales resolutions to finish a number of must-read sales books.
Alternatively, you could choose to spend a certain amount of time every week checking in on relevant online resources, like the Cirrus Insight Blog.
The point is to make a habit out of learning on the regular. In doing so, you create greater opportunities for improvement and further fuel a mindset that functions off possibility — even when times get tough.
Final Thoughts: 7 New Years Resolutions That Will Make You a Better Salesperson
When setting on New Year’s sales resolutions for the year ahead, it’s as much about the what of those goals as it is the how of achieving them. When both work in tandem, you increase the likelihood of seeing them through to completion. In turn, the positive outcomes you generate then fuel future success well into the new year and the years that follow.
Have a New Year’s sales resolution in mind that wasn’t shared above? Tweet your thoughts at @CirrusInsight!
