What are your dreams for 2008? Are you dreaming of increasing your income? Possibly, buying a home or a new car? Is your dream to become the top producer in your office or maybe even your company? Perhaps it’s a promotion or a new job? Dreams are what keep us going.
Having dreams is a key to staying motivated, to staying sharp, to staying alive. Yet, those same dreams that excite and motivate can turn into killers of the spirit. They can destroy our motivation and will just as easily as they can drive them. Dreams without plans are just that—daydreams. Wishful thinking. Hoping for a miracle. Wanting without working.
Turning dreams into reality is difficult, for in order to become reality they have to backed up with sweat and wisdom. They have to be taken from the dream stage to the real world where things don’t go as smoothly as they did in our dreams. Where obstacles must be overcome. Where disappoint waits. Where failure is lurking.
For many of us, the fear of failing to reach our dreams keeps us from pursuing them. We find it easier to dream and hope rather than trying to turn them into reality because if we try, we may fail.
But we do have a choice. We can simply daydream about what we’d like to have happen, or we can turn those dreams into reality. It is our choice.
We don’t have to settle for simply dreaming. And now is the time to begin turning your 2008 dreams into reality. The new year is literally just around the corner. In less than three weeks you’ll be racking up 2008 sales—or making excuses as to why the sales aren’t there. Actually, you should have started your 2008 planning months ago. But it isn’t too late. As a matter of fact, it is NEVER TOO LATE to change your future, to turn your dreams into reality.
Take the next weeks and create a detailed, realistic plan to turn those dreams into reality. Examine your past year to see what went right and what didn’t. Take the lessons you learn and apply them to your planning for next year:
- What did you do right that brought in new customers?
- What did you try that didn’t work?
- What group of prospects do you seem to work best with? Which did you not do well with?
- Where did you spend your time, money and effort?
- Which of these activities weren’t worth the time and effort?
- Which were productive that you should be doing more of?
- How can you take those things that worked and do more of them?
- Where can you find more prospects like the ones you connected with?
- What products or services did you sell? Which ones did you find difficult to sell?
- What are your personal strengths? Your weaknesses?
- How can you take advantage of your strengths?
- How can you minimize your weaknesses?
Ask yourself these and many other questions like them. Don’t guess about the answers. Examine your past year’s sales history and find the real answers. The answers to the questions of what you did right and what you did wrong are in your history. If you know your history, you can change your future.
Then, once you have your answers, plan your activities for 2008. Concentrate on those activities that make money—prospecting, selling, and building relationships with your prospects and clients. Find ways to eliminate the busy work—all of the day-to-day ‘stuff’ you do that isn’t income producing such as shuffling files, hanging with the other salespeople, spending hours trying to design that perfect flier.
Once you’ve discovered your strengths and what has produced results in the past and then created a detailed plan for 2008 that takes advantage of those things and minimizes the rest, dedicate yourself to putting the plan into action.
Realistic, careful, focused planning followed by massive action implementing the planning creates success. Action without planning is simply being busy for the sake of being busy. It accomplishes nothing. Planning without action is daydreaming. You must marry the one to the other.
2008 doesn’t have to be just another disappointing year. It can be YOUR year. But unless you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, you’ll be sitting where you are a year from now, daydreaming about next year.
Interesting blog. I read it and also listened to your podcast on screaming the loudest. I find myself sitting firmly on the fence as how to respond. On one hand I agree; one must put forth effort and planning to make a dream a reality; however, you failed to factor in the human factor as you did in the podcast. The dream doesn’t kill the spirit, the world and how one relates to that world kills the spirit…the dream itself.
A person can virtually spend years planning and preparing to throw that switch, only to be inundated by people who’s “help” is not to help you grow, but to take your money. I think you should cover how one can determine whom to trust. You spoke of taking the “expert” position and it’s that positioning that breaks through the white noise of the consumer. But what actually makes a person an expert?
Many of the “experts” are simply mirrors of what they read from some other “expert.” Does knowing how to draw a cartoon make me an expert cartoonist? Some would say yes. But I don’t. It only makes me a person who can draw a cartoon. As I talk to you I could consider you an expert, but is that because you’re really good at selling, or because you have your own company?
Simply put, just because you make a plan doesn’t mean you’ll achieve your dream. Just because you don’t try doesnt’ mean it’s just a daydream. Maybe experts don’t exist and the oddity of the world is what is really driving the bus? I don’t think a person in a service business (like yours perhaps) can say they are an expert unless what they offer hits the mark for everyone who trys it. I haven’t heard any guarentees being made by PR firms, or businesses that say can increase sales.
Well, sir, I did enjoy your blog and your podcast. I look forward to see more from you in the future.
Comment by Bill Columbus — December 16, 2007 @ 4:50 am |
Let me clarify. It is unfulfilled dreams that can kill the spirit. The dreams that one has that one doesn’t put forth the effort to bring to reality. Many a person, salespeople included, have dreamt of success and when that dream failed to come true, they found themselves spiritless, lacking motivation, incapable of allowing themselves to dream again. The interesting thing that I’ve noticed is most of those who have allowed the failure of reaching a dream to break their spirit is those who never gave the dream a real chance. They dreamt but didn’t act. It seems those that worked diligently to achieve and didn’t, enthusiastically move on to other dreams.
And it is the human factor that is the culprit. There is no guarantee that planning and action will result in achieving the dream. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s achievement was identical to their dream. However, we have basically three choices we can make: 1) that which most people take—no planning and no action, only the daydream. 2) no or little planning with action—achieving the dream by accident, if at all. 3) carefully planning and then taking massive action to implement that plan.
I’ve worked with a great number of top producing salespeople. Almost everyone has carefully planned their activity and then followed that plan with a tremendous amount of focused activity. Their success is due to performing a vast amount of the right actions well. But they performed the right actions because they had carefully examined their past sales history, learned what they had done right in the past—as well as what they did wrong—and then focused their attention on those things they do well that produce business.
Obviously, some stumbled into success. They are the exception.
And there are many who carefully planned and acted never reached the level of sales they wanted—but even they performed at a much higher level than previously. They didn’t achieve the dream as dreamt, but they still took their careers to higher levels.
My advocacy of focused, detailed planning is based on implementing the plan. If action doesn’t follow, there is no sense in wasting the time generating the plan. Success in sales requires one to know where they are going, how they are going to get there, and then doing the things necessary to get there. And the best way to know how to get there is to know where one has been—what they’ve done well, what they haven’t. Assuming one knows is dangerous as we often ‘feel’ we know something, but when we examine it in detail, we find that what we thought we knew isn’t true. If any of the three are missing, success, if it comes, comes by chance.
You’re taking an awfully radical view of the expert. One is not an expert unless what one teaches works for everyone who tries it? Then, of course, by your definition there are no experts, for there is nothing that will work for everyone who tries it. Whether we are talking about sales training, PR, advertising, golf instruction, writing skills, or any thing else, none can ‘work’ for everyone.
I’d consider Tiger Woods to be an expert at golf. Can he teach one to play golf? Yes. Can he teach everyone to play golf well? No. Not everyone has the gifts to play golf well. No matter how much time and effort he invests in them, he cannot make the good golfers.
Is direct mail effective? It certainly can be. Can direct mail be successful for every product or company? No—depending upon your definition of success. Some products lend themselves more to direct mail than others. Consequently, a direct mail expert may be able to design pieces for two different companies, one generating a huge response, the second barely getting any response. Is it the fault of the design expert? I don’t think so; it is simply that it doesn’t work for everyone who tries it because of a number of factors.
If the bar for being an expert is that the expert must be able to create a positive result for everyone who seeks their expertise, then we may as well drop the word from our vocabulary. That is a bar that is impossible for anyone to hurdle.
Comment by pmccord — December 16, 2007 @ 2:56 pm |
I enjoyed your entry. I thoroughly believe that you have to have goals written down to achieve results. There are those you don’t plan and make it, but the majority of those who fail to plan end up failing. You have some great suggestions for 2008 goal setting.
Comment by John D — December 16, 2007 @ 11:44 pm |
I suppose it’s my turn to clarify. I see the term expert over used and mostly by those who don’t have the ability to be an expert for themselves let alone others. I think the level of expertise varies therefore the title of expert is one that should not be given or used by those whose expertise level is on the low side. Example, two people go through training, read manuals, and do any type of learning about a topic/subject, etc. They did everything the same. Person #1 studied hard, got good grades, and retained alot; while person #2 partied, didn’t really put much into it and isn’t a very good steward of the information(lack of a better word). SInce they both did all the same training and study material, wouldn’t they both be considered an expert? Or is the person who is better at delivering the knowledge an expert and the other is not?
Comment by Bill Columbus — December 17, 2007 @ 4:28 am |
You’re right. The word expert is used quite a bit. It has three uses in today’s marketplace—one meaning has to do with quality of work, another has to do with how the person is perceived by others, and a third deals with whether the individual has a particular area of specialty within their profession.
In terms of quality of work, the expert is the one who has total mastery of their art, craft, or subject. Most often, even in this format the term is expanded beyond simply being a master of their craft within their niche. For example, an Astronomer may be an expert in only one very tiny niche of astronomy, say black holes. But his or her reputation expands beyond black holes and they become recognized as an expert in astronomy. All of the sudden their proclamations about anything regarding astronomy are taken as the view of an expert.
That in fact is garbling the first definition with the second. The second use of the term expert is one who is recognized within their industry and/or the general public as an expert. Their level of expertise may or may not be that of one who has truly mastered their subject. But their image and reputation is that of an expert. This image and reputation is most often due to a well-planned and executed marketing campaign. Many (probably most) of the experts who are quoted in the news and who are on the TV shows as expert guests fit within this category. They are interviewed and quoted because they are perceived to be an expert. Most of these men and women do have well above average competence in their field, but are not the best of the best. They are simply very competent and have built their image and reputation.
On a lower level, but in the same vein, are those who are competent—and even some incompetent—who are seeking to build their reputation. Some have the ability and the expertise to succeed, others don’t.
The third definition of expert is one who is a specialist within a particular area. One who concentrates their work within a particular niche within their profession. This is similar to the first definition in the sense of working within a niche, but without the claim of being the all knowing master of the subject. This definition has more to do with competence within a specialty than as the wizard of all knowledge within the area.
Frankly, it is difficult to determine who is a real expert and who isn’t. There are some ways to help qualify, but they aren’t proof. For example, since you brought up the question as to whether I am or not, we can look at some of the things that point towards me having some qualification for the term—or not.
One indication is that my books are published one of the top business book publishers in the world. They are very selective in what they accept and vet their authors and the material heavily. Is being published by a top publisher proof of expertise? No. It is an indication, but far from proof. They make mistakes also.
Another is having my articles and interviews published in top business and industry publications such as Advisor Today, Hotel and Motel Management, SalesForceXP, Airport Business, Selling Power, and many others. Like the book publishers, these publications vet their authors and material very well, looking for original and quality material. Again, not proof, just an indication the person knows what they are talking about.
Having my articles and blog posts picked up by hundreds of top tier blogs and business and industry sites. These sites seek out the best material they can find. Mine are picked up on a regular basis. Not proof, just an indication.
Peer recognition. Having my material picked up by (sometimes ‘stolen’ and copied), being asked to include my articles in their materials, being asked to be interviewed for their subscribers, etc. because of the quality of my work and the original thinking it entails is an indication of the recognition by peers. Again not proof, but an indication.
Feedback from readers and clients. Consistent feedback from readers and clients about the quality and value of my work is also an indication of quality.
None of these alone or even in combination are proof, they are simply indicators. As a matter of fact, I don’t know any way to prove expertise except in a direct relationship. There are indicators, but I know of no way of proving it in a general sense.
So, am I an expert because of my expertise or because I have a number of indicators that say I know what I’m talking about? That ultimately must be determined by each individual who reads my material or seeks my training or consulting. They must determine whether they recognize me as an expert and if so, at what level.
Comment by pmccord — December 17, 2007 @ 1:37 pm |