Kick off Your New Sales Year with a Look Back at Last Year

In the new year, take time for self-reflection on what you have learned, focus on new ideas, and EXPECT better results.

No matter if last year was your best year ever or one you wish to forget, taking time for self-reflection on what you learned is a powerful way to kickstart your new sales year. Every situation – win or loss – has a lesson in it.

The new calendar generates its own optimism, but many sales teams, individuals, and leaders would do well to look carefully at their last years performance for opportunities to do better in the new year.

As Jeb Blount says in his article and podcast Reflection Vs Regret: “When you reflect, you detach from your emotions with objectivity to look at your entire body of work from the past year.”

Here are nine reflection prompts that will help you kick start your new sales year:

Review Your Entire Calendar

Look for patterns and empty spaces. Did you have enough appointments and were the appointments you set worthwhile? Did you maximize your time? Did you find any account names you had forgotten about? As a result of reviewing your calendar, what changes in scheduling will you make this year?

Look at your wardrobe

Do you look the part of the professional salesperson or leader? Your personal attitude and how you carry yourself is affected by what you wear and your own self perception. Shined shoes, fresh shirts and blouses, pressed slacks and color are key. As a sales leader, you might consider running a contest where the winner gets a clothing allowance.

Honestly Review Each Sales Opportunity You Lost

Were you creative or did you simply work as if you were on autopilot? Were you ever really in the opportunity or simply comparison fodder? What could you have done differently, if anything, to have won each of those opportunities?

Did You Grow Professionally?

Did you move forward in your sales, organizational, technology or industry skill level? How many books or seminars did you read or attend this past year? Write out a plan for this year in which you will do something personally to improve your level of professionalism each quarter.

Who Did You Add To Your Network?

Building leverage in your local market by actively building relationships is critical. Each salesperson should have a minimum of five relationships with other non-competitive contacts that sell into the same types of accounts. They may refer you into accounts you are not aware of or even provide you information that can help you win once an opportunity opens up.

Did Your Build Your Social Media Network?

How active are you in using LinkedIn  and other social networks? How is your personal branding on LinkedIn? Does your profile need an update? Were you using LinkedIn to develop your relationships or prospects? How consistent are you with posting and commenting?

Are You Happy?

Especially in challenging times everyone needs time to recharge. What did you do to keep yourself exciting or physically in shape? Did it work? Did you expand your hobby? Are you happy? If not, why not? If there is one place that self-reflection really matters it is here. Happiness matters if you expect to be fully engaged and productive in your sales career.

What Was Your Earnings Rate?

More importantly, how many selling hours — time spent in face-to-face mode — did you work? In reality, there are only 10.5 months in a year to make a 12-month quota. Did you track your time?  What do you want your hourly earnings rate to be? How will you be more efficient? More productive? Get more time in front of people?

Do You Know Your Numbers?

Take time to determine the basics. (How many face-to-face meetings did you make with a pre-sales technical rep? How many demonstrations, proposals or executive presentations did you make?) You should know these by month and then compare your results. Did you exceed your quota? If not, what will you do this year to ensure that you do? What activities need to be increased to achieve your sales budgets?

Break Old Patterns

You’ve heard Albert Einstein’s famous definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Taking time for self-reflection is one of the keys to identifying where you are repeating the same mistakes, how to break the pattern, and building a more effective personal business plan so that you get different results in the future.

About the author

Ken Thoreson

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the…

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