Almost all of us spend a lot of time on our computers and smartphones. It's common knowledge that you should reboot your computer occasionally, right? Give it a chance to completely shut down, just for a moment, and then start it right back up. It's the same with phones. The folks at the Apple Store tell us it's a good idea to turn off the iPhone, and then restart it, once a day. In both cases, this reboot is done so that maximum performance with regard to speed and memory can be achieved. It's also smart to reboot your sales strategy from time to time. The goal of the sales reboot should be to achieve maximum performance from the sales efforts.
One of the challenges of sales management these days is that there are just so many things you have to do in order to be successful. Most sales organizations start their year off with solid sales plans that have been looked over at least a few times and are then presented up the line for approval. A lot of thought goes into these plans, and they typically contain all sorts of key performance indicators with next steps that would have you prepared for nearly every situation. With all this preparation and planning, it would seem impossible that you could ever get off course.
But that sales strategy was created 6 months ago, and since that time, a lot has happened in your world. Not everyone is playing the part you anticipated when you laid out the plan so nicely just 180 days earlier. Your competition has become more fierce, there are new competitors that have entered your space, you have suffered from some unplanned attrition—and now you find yourself putting that plan off to the side because you are focused on the urgent... or in this case, triage.
Having become so focused on the urgent has caused you to pay almost zero attention to the important—and without attention to the important, it will never get done. The most difficult part of not paying attention to the important is that it won't hurt your revenue performance today. It might not even affect you this quarter, but it will in the long run. It's kind of like not taking the time to turn off your computer and reboot it at the end of the day. The fact is: it won't hurt your performance today, or even tomorrow. But after a few days, you will start to notice that things are not running as fast as they should, and that the entire thing is locking up and freezing from time-to-time. You start to become concerned that things you are working on could get lost, and that you will have wasted a lot of time.
If you go back and read the last few sentences, and it's hard to know if I'm writing about rebooting your computer or the need to reboot your sales strategy, which is why...
I think everyone reading this knows that there is never a good time to reboot your computer. The same is true with your sales strategy. You're always going to be too busy and have too much going on but... I encourage you to find the time today to pull out the file that contains your sales plan for this year. Look at it closely. See how you are doing according to the plan. What is in there that you are actually doing? What is working? What are you not doing that you know you should? Take a look at where you might need to make adjustments and make them.
Don’t fall victim to the urgent and forget about that sales strategy you built. As the saying goes… more of the same will just get you more of the same. So what's stopping you from doing it today? Today is a great day to take the time to look at your sales plan and reboot your sales organization. Commit to maximizing performance and to allowing your plan to work.
Now would also be a great time to mark a date on your calendar for approximately 90 days from today to do another sales reboot. Set the appointment today while it's on your mind. Commit to evaluating what is working and what needs to be adjusted. It's this type of commitment to rebooting and resetting that will help your sales machine perform for a long time.