What is the fundamental element salespeople are quick to abandon? It’s planning.
More specifically, it’s developing and committing to a defined action plan for goal achievement.
If your daily activities aren’t guided by a plan of action that defines specific activities tied to specific goals, you may be working hard, but you have no way of determining if you’re making progress…or falling behind. Instead of feeling motivated, you feel frustrated. It’s like taking a road trip to “somewhere” without a roadmap. You drive a considerable distance, but you don’t know if you’re closer to or farther from your destination. Perhaps, you’ve already passed it…and didn’t recognize it. So, you keep driving, in one direction, then another, wondering if the journey will ever end.
Without a plan of action, you find yourself jumping from one activity to another—few of which are actually completed. You feel busy; you look busy. But, you’re not investing consistent effort in any one activity. Consequently, you’re not creating consistent positive results from any activity. And that leads to more frustration, and eventually to the conclusion that you have to work “smarter.”
How do most salespeople attempt to work smarter? Rather than improving their skills and abilities with their existing tasks (which would be the “smart” thing to do), they add more activities to the mix. Then, they have more things to do than their limited time and energy permit.
Your time and energy must be invested in the activities that have a direct path to goal accomplishment. If you don’t perform some of those activities as effectively as your plan requires, you’re better off investing your time honing those skills rather than investing time and energy (and your hopes) in alternative strategies for which you neither have the time nor expertise.
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