Planning for success in your sales career and life

Hello Sales Reset Community

Last week, we explored how to plan for your customer’s success with your products and services.

This week, it’s all about planning for YOUR success!

Over many years of working with sales teams, we’ve observed that many salespeople don’t have a plan for their careers and lives.

Why is that?

For some salespeople, the idea of planning for success in their career and life has never occurred to them.

With others, we’ve seen a reluctance to plan for success because of the possibility of disappointment.

We know that achieving your full potential will require considerable and sustained effort. There’s so much you can learn and improve.

But why bother to make the effort? What’s in it for you?

We strongly encourage you to plan for your success. Knowing what you’re seeking to achieve will give you all the motivation you need to maintain focus and effort.

How you'll improve sales results this week

• Planning starts with a vision of success

• Career plan first; work back to planning this week

• More of the same or 2X, 5X, 10X?!

• Challenges: What might stop you?

• Planning for your success - what to do this week

• End of Week - Reflective Practice

Planning starts with a vision of success

I’m sure you’ve heard this quote:

What does success in your sales career mean for you?

You’ll need to think about different timescales to answer this question. Here’s what to think about:

• Very Short Term - What does success look like this week?

• Short Term - What does success look like this quarter?

• Medium Term - What does success look like this year?

• Long Term - What does success look like in 3 or 5 years?

• Very Long Term - What do you want to achieve by the end of your sales career?

Career plan first; work back to planning this week

Start planning for success by considering the long term first, then work back towards the short term.

Ideally, you’ll start planning for success by thinking about what you want to achieve by the end of your sales career. Here are some questions to prompt your thoughts:

• How far away is the end of your sales career?

• What do you want to achieve during your sales career?

• How many more years do you expect to work?

• Are you planning for retirement?

• Do you plan to sell full-time for the rest of your career, or will you use your selling experience as a foundation for other career routes?

• Do you want to consider a career in sales team leadership?

Career planning gets easier for most people the more often they do it! 😀

After you’ve developed an outline plan for your career, you can reflect and plan for the next 3-5 years. Then, when you’ve got these plans in place, you can make your plan for the next year.

Knowing what’s required this year gives you a framework for what you need to achieve this quarter. And this is where you can make the strongest connections to your sales targets and quotas.

Finally, you can plan what you need to achieve this week.

You’ll start every day with great clarity about what to prioritise today to ensure you're on track to achieving your sales targets and your career and life goals!

More of the same or 2X, 5X, 10X?!

In our experience, many salespeople have the capacity to double their earnings. Not by working harder but by working more effectively.

This is the time to consider your mindset. Are you happy with more of the same or seeking significant changes?

Your earning potential through the remainder of your career can be a primary motivation to invest the time and effort you’ll need to achieve and maintain your Sales Reset.

As a salesperson, you’ve chosen a career where your skills can open the doors to huge opportunities with unlimited potential. The best salespeople will always find opportunities to succeed.

Or you can take time out for yourself or your family for a period.

What do you choose? More of the same, or will you plan to double your earnings and career success? Or increase by 5 times, 10 times or more?!

Challenges: What might stop you?

• Fear of disappointment: Some people don’t plan for success because they don’t want the risk of disappointment. Perhaps they made plans before and they didn’t work out.

• Limiting Beliefs: Some people might have been told they’ll never amount to much, and this is what they now believe.

• No opportunity to advance: Some people are in roles and teams with insufficient opportunity to develop as much as they need to.

• Putting it off to tomorrow: Some people put off this type of planning for tomorrow, and they do the same thing the next day and the next.

If you choose to engage sufficiently in planning for your success, each of these challenges, plus all the others we haven’t listed, can be tackled. What are the most significant challenges you must overcome in planning for YOUR success?

Planning for your success - what to do this week

If you choose, you can finish this week with an outline career plan. Of course, it won’t be perfect, but you’ll have made a start, and you can plan when to review and revise!

Set aside some good quality time. Come back to this email newsletter and give the questions sufficient thought. Start with the end in mind and work back to priorities this quarter and this week.

Share your first draft plan with those who are close to you: your coach, your family, your friends, and, hopefully, your sales team leader.

Commit to your plan and do what’s needed today to ensure you're on track for the success you’ve chosen.

Plan to reflect on the evidence. Review the evidence of progress periodically, perhaps every quarter, and adjust your plan based on what you’ve achieved.

End of Week - Reflective Practice

At the end of this week, ask yourself these key questions:

We hope you’ve found this Weekly Sales Reset valuable.

Have a great week!

The Sales Reset Team

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