Hard-Earned Sales Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks

Yesterday's quote got me thinking about learning from past mistakes. We all know we've made them, but would we really be willing to admit to them? I don't think many would!

That's what makes this story from sales trainer Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies so great - she's detailed her three biggest selling blunders from when she was just starting out, and then explains what she learned from each.

Lesson #1: Sometimes you gotta sing

After finishing the Xerox training program, I was assigned to follow Jim Farrell for several weeks to learn the ropes. But the day finally came when I was sent out on my own.

At 9 a.m., I pulled up in front of Quality Products to begin my cold calls. But I couldn't get out. I was terrified and tongue-tied, convinced that my sales career was over before it even began. After nearly 30 minutes of being paralyzed in my seat, a song wiggled its way into my mind: "I Have Confidence" from the movie, The Sound of Music.

I started singing to myself, quietly at first, then louder and louder. I was particularly enamored with the refrain, "I have confidence in confidence alone, and as you can see, I have confidence in me."

I really didn't believe the words, but they got me moving off my "stuckness." I pulled out my cold call plan that I'd studiously prepared the night before and reviewed it. I practiced my opening lines again and again. Then I got out of the car and went it. By the end of the day, I'd made over 20 cold calls and uncovered some potential prospects.

Over the years, I've been confronted with many tough situations that I didn't know how to handle because I lacked the requisite knowledge or experience. I've learned that you can't know everything before you start. And I've also learned that "movement" is key to discovering the answers.

Join us again tomorrow for Lesson #2 about reaching higher level decision-makers.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. Learn more at http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com/

Setting Goals for 2008

Successful salespeople know that setting goals is one of the best ways to stay on track throughout the year, and now is the perfect time to get started. Have you created your plan for the year? How many more clients do you want to sign on? How much money do you want to make?

"If you haven't started thinking about your sales goals, you're likely to be in the same place this time next year," says sales breakthrough expert Rochelle Togo-Figa. "The definition of a goal is 'a dream with a plan and a deadline.'"

"The most common reasons people don't reach their goals are they fail to write them down, fail to make a plan, and fail to take action. Without knowing where you want to go and how you're going to get there, you'll never reach your goal destination."

Here are Togo-Figa's nine steps to help you achieve your goals:

• Create your S.M.A.R.T. goals for the year. Make sure your goals are vivid and specific, measurable in quantity, achievable, realistic but also a stretch, and you have a timeline of when you'll reach your goal.

• Write down all barriers you can think of that might get in the way of you achieving your goals. Writing down all these thoughts on paper helps to diminish them.

• Select the top 3 goals you want to reach in the next 3 months from your list, and commit yourself to taking an action step every day to achieving these goals.

• Write specific action steps for each goal. An action step doesn't have to take very long to do. It could be spending 10-15 minutes daily working towards that goal. If your goal is to sign on four new clients in the next three months, an action step could be making ten new prospect calls each day before 9am.

• Make a list of people who can support you in reaching your goals. They may also have goals that you can support them in reaching. People like to help, so ask them.

• Put your goals in a visible place so you can see them daily. Post them on your desk, in your car, on your bathroom mirror.

• Every day read your goals aloud. Speak your goals in the present tense, as if you're already there. The more you say your goals aloud and to yourself, the more real they become.

• Visualize yourself having reached your goals. See yourself succeeding. How excited you'll be when you bring in those new clients and get that bonus commission check!

• Promise yourself that you will achieve your goals. If you want this to be the year of sales breakthroughs, then it's up to you to commit yourself emotionally, mentally and physically. Otherwise, it's likely not to happen.

Put these goals into practice while setting your goals, and you'll see success throughout the year.

Rochelle Togo-Figa, The Sales Breakthrough Expert, is the creator of the Sales Breakthrough System. Visit her website at www.SalesBreakthroughs.com