This time of year, people hit their sales reset buttons. Every quarter, every year: it’s time to do it all over again.
What type of sales year does this practice create for you?
Even if you just started your sales job, every business quarter starts to feel the same. You chase your quota. You make your numbers (or not). You wear, wash, rinse and repeat.
Then you hit your sales reset button and start all over again.
Your company seems to have a short-term memory. They hit their sales reset button too.
They forget your past performance. They don’t allow you to rest on your sales laurels. They ask you “So, what have you done for me lately?” every quarter.
Another day, the start of another quarter… or campaign year.
Except this quarter, the bar is set even higher. Your company tries to recoup lost revenue from the prior quarter.
What happens if you decide not to hit your sales reset button every quarter?
What happens when your mantra becomes one of creating sustainable business value rather than participating in quarterly sales sprints?
What happens when you regard yourself as a sales engineering, IT, sales and business person of worth instead of a person thrown at a business situation in a numbers game?
What happens when you set your own business development bar and professional development goals?
Hitting your sales reset button is like doing business through the rear-view mirror. You are always going back to where you started.
You can’t move forward as a business person of worth if you are holding yourself back.
Next quarter, set your own goals. Accommodate their sales goals in yours. That means making the breadth and depth of your personal and professional goals much bigger than your company’s.
Next quarter, take a 10,000 foot eagle’s eye view of the business landscape: yours, theirs, your customers. That means making the breadth and depth of your professional goals much bigger than everyone else’s.
Next quarter, and the quarter after that and for the next 12 months, focus on developing a solid understanding of the business environment. Understand how your professional efforts fit into your company’s objectives and your customers’ requirements for sustainability.
How’s the view?
Once you decide to become a business person of worth, you remain solidly focused on looking through the windshield instead of the rear view mirror. There’s no going backward to square one.
Your forward momentum keeps you motivated to become a more knowledgeable business person. Your forward momentum focuses on continuous learning and application of what you’ve learned to each of your customer’s business cases.
Why hit the sales rest button when you can serve this greater purpose to yourself, your company and your customers?
Take a fresh perspective. Isn’t it time to makes your sales role an entirely different one?
Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, is a management consultant and business coach. She catalyzes startups and remodels small-to-medium manufacturing and service companies who have difficulty with unpredictable revenue streams. Learn how to move yourself forward as a business person of worth in Do YOU Mean Business? available on Amazon.com.
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