By Greta Schulz
“I got seven hours and 28 minutes of sleep last night,” said Colleen, a guest staying at our home as she woke up one morning. “And I woke up twice.”
“What?” I exclaimed, wondering how the heck she knew this.
“Well, my sleep was interrupted twice, so I didn’t really get a great night of sleep,” she said.
I was left wondering what was going on. She explained to me that her sleep was all documented on her Fitbit, her wristwatch-looking band on her arm.
“That thing can tell you that?” I asked, wondering how this little band can empower such knowledge.
“Oh, yeah. It can also tell me how many steps I’ve taken in a day, and I can compete with friends by tracking each other as well,” she said. “I love it because I know I do more than I did before I had this, just by knowing what I have done as opposed to guessing or not thinking about it really at all.”
This immediately got me thinking about how human nature works—how different we are at setting goals and achieving them. I wondered, is there a Fitbit for sales?
Salespeople always are saying they work hard, and that there is not enough time to do more than what they are doing. Typically, their only measure is their revenue goal.
I started to think about sports and the relationship here. I wonder if the Miami Marlins, for example, decided that winning the World Series was all that mattered, rather than how they would get there—as if the coaches said to the players, “OK, just do as much as you can to practice hard, throw and catch, and let’s try to win.”
If that sounds ridiculous to you, why are you doing it on your own team, or even yourself?
To be successful, it’s not about just the end game. It’s about all of the steps to get there. I have always believed that having an activity goal, as well as a revenue/monthly income goal, is important—even more important than the end game.
Why? Because if you know what you need to do to get there and you do each of those things and it’s not working, you can readjust. If you don’t know and just do whatever you can in hopes of getting there and you don’t, then what? It’s too late. Plus, you haven’t created anything repeatable for future success.
Leaders should start by sitting down with each salesperson and working together to create activity goals. Yes, activity goals. The reason you sit down with each individual is because each person who’s selling for you is unique in the way they address their road to success. Your job is to help them develop activities that best fit them, commit to them, and track them relentlessly.
You can track such things as cold calls, networking events, strategic alliances and prospect visits for upselling opportunities. The job of a leader is to help salespeople develop repeatable processes that work for them and then coach them through it.
Everyone needs help staying on track. Become their personal Fitbit. ↵
Greta Schulz is president of Schulz Business, a sales consulting and training firm. She is the best-selling author of “To Sell is NOT to Sell” and works with Fortune 1000 companies and entrepreneurs. For more information or free sales tips, go to schulzbusiness.com and sign up for “GretaNomics,” a weekly video tip series, or email sales questions to greta@schulzbusiness.com.
