2022 just started, but January is already almost over. Did you set goals for yourself in 2022? Whether they were personal goals or software sales goals, having an action plan can help you meet them. When New Year’s Eve comes around, lots of people make resolutions to lose weight, learn a new language, or hit their biggest sales bonus ever. Whatever your goals are, here are a few tips to help you get there.
Vision boards
You may put vision boards into the same category as love potions and good luck charms, but they’re fast catching on in the professional world. A recent study by TD Bank of 500 business owners found that those who vision board feel twice as confident about hitting their goals and a whopping 82% reported that they actually met at least half the goals on their board. A vision board, in case you don’t know, is basically a collection of pictures that represent your goals, hopes, and dreams, a collage you might place in a space you frequently use, such as your office. One explanation of vision boards is that they actually rewire your brain. We typically look for things that corroborate our own beliefs. If you believe you are not going to be successful, you’ll notice things that cement that belief. But if you put visuals in front of you that speak to your success, you will actually change your subconscious way of thinking.
Accountability Partners
Do you have any friends of family members who are also in the world of software sales? They might make a great accountability partner you can check in with on a weekly or monthly basis to help keep each other on track for your goals. You might say that your manager (or your execs if you are a manager) could be your built-in accountability partner, but for some people an accountability partner works best when they’re a colleague. Accountability is effective: a study conducted by the American Society of Training and Development found that 65% of individuals who commit their goals to another person meet them—and even more incredibly, increase to 95% when they have regular meetings. What makes accountability partnership work? For most people, letting someone else down does not feel good. If we put someone else into a place of expecting us to succeed, it can be far more effective than committing our goals to ourselves and quietly letting them go if we don’t meet them.
Mentorship
Sometimes when you are moving along the path towards your goal, you hit roadblocks you don’t know how to deal with. Of course, if you’ve been in the software sales cycle for a while you know there are plenty of ways software solution selling can hit a roadblock, whether it’s in the sale itself or the implementation of the solution. Having a software sales mentor can go a long way towards meeting your goals, just like hiring a personal trainer to help you lose weight or a tutor to help you learn a foreign language can do wonders towards meeting those goals. A mentor is someone who has been through what you’ve been and can offer you solutions you may not have thought of. They can provide feedback on your sales process, even if that feedback is sometimes blunt. They can also cheer you on and reaffirm your success. Sometimes mentors will charge for their guidance, and sometimes they will not. Sometimes finding mentorship is as simple as asking a senior salesperson in your organization for pointers.
Accept Feedback
Being coachable is in itself, an important skill in work and life. Some people are naturally very coachable, while others need to develop that skill. Feedback comes in all different forms from different sources. Most obviously, it comes from your sales manager (or your execs if you are the manager). But feedback can also come indirectly from colleagues and clients as well. If you can take questions, comments, and concerns into consideration without getting offended, you will know how to pivot your approach. Even better, you will likely sidestep the same issue coming up in the future. Though most people associate workplace feedback with a sense of dread, studies have found that feedback is actually foundational for a successful workplace. Four out of ten workers disengage when they don’t get feedback, and as many as 82% of them appreciate feedback—both good and bad. When it comes to software sales, feedback is crucial for refining the sales process and hitting your metrics. And if your goals involve surpassing certain sales metrics, feedback can help you get there.
Balance
It’s easy to think that meeting your sales goals will be easier if you work 80 hours a week. But although it seems counterintuitive, sometimes working less can actually help you produce more. That’s because overworking negatively impacts your performance and can quickly lead to burnout. The danger of this is especially acute toward the end of the sales quarter, whether you haven’t met your goals and rushing to meet them, or you’ve met them and you just want more. Balance is all about prioritizing your most important concerns at work and in your personal life, and allocating the right amount of time to each one. Getting good exercise, solid sleep, eating well, and having a social life outside of work are all helpful. The fallout from not addressing these concerns is real: did you know that addressing burnout is a $190 billion industry? In the software sales game, the quality of the deals you make is often just as important as the quantity, especially if you are dealing with enterprise clients and/or trying to make lifetime relationships. Staying balanced can help you perform better at the table, which means you can hit your goals.
What are your goals for 2022?
What do you hope to accomplish this year in your personal and professional life? Whatever the case may be, taking these 5 tips can help you develop a plan to meet them. For some software sales professionals, finding a new workplace is their goal. And for some software sales managers, it’s finding new hires and assembling a great team. Whether you’re looking for a new role or looking to have one filled, I can help with that. As a software sales recruiter for over three decades I’ve got a wide network of companies and talent. Send an email to mike@michaelblair.com and let’s discuss your goals for 2022!