Writing Down Your Goals: Let Me Show You Why ... You Need One

The Three Components of an Effective Written Plan

Number One: Express Your Plan in Continuous Action

When developing a specific, written, action plan for your goals it is imperative that the plan be expressed in continuous action. This means that you know what you have to do every day, week, month or year in order to achieve your goals.The most successful salespeople understand this and that's how they go about planning each year and insuring their continued success.The successful salesperson decides before the year starts how much money they want to make in the upcoming year.

They do it not by pulling it out of a hat, but by deciding on how they want their life to look in that upcoming year and beyond, and what kind of lifestyle they want to live. This tells them how much money they need to make to support that lifestyle.

Let's say, hypothetically, the goal for the next year is $100,000 in commissions. The successful salesperson now devises a plan by first expressing it in continuous action. Being successful, this salesperson keeps records and knows how much the average sale puts in his or her pocket.If the average sales yields $1,000 in commissions that now means our salesperson would have to close 100 sales a year or, in continuous action, 2 per week (did you ever notice it's a lot easier to close 2 sales a week, than 100 in a year). Now the goal is no longer $100,000, it's just 2 sales per week.But it's not always within a salesperson's complete control to close a sale. Some people do say "no." Some people say "I have to think about it." But not everyone says that. Since top producers keep good records, this one knows that one of every 3 face to face sales presentations ends up a sale. So now you don't have to make $100,000. You don't even have to close 100 sales in a year or 2 a week. You just have to make 6 face to face sales presentations a week.

Taking this even further we find that his or her cancellation rate on appointments is 25%. Meaning this salesperson doesn't even have to see anyone, they just need to set up 8 appointments a week.But knowing that one of every 5 people you speak to gives you an appointment and every 3 dials of the phone puts you in touch with the person you're looking to reach now breaks it down even further. Now we know that if this salesperson dials the phone 120 times per week (or 24 per day) on average it will yield: 40 phone conversations; 8 appointments; 6 presentations and 2 sales for $1,000 commission each. This tells us that every day that salesperson goes to work and generates 24 prospecting telephone calls he or she is getting that much closer to their goal.

Now how motivated do you think that person is to make the calls? That's continuous action.