Our Goals are about the end result we’re chasing, so we focus on that. That Goal or end result is what we expect to make us happy, feel accomplished and make an impact on our lives or others’. One thing I’ve found over the years is that sometimes the Goals we’re shooting for aren’t entirely under our control. Some Goals we can only influence to a greater or lesser degree. For instance making a sale is not entirely under our control. We don’t control the other person making the decision to buy or not. We can control what we say to them, how we say it and when. We simply do not control other people and their decisions.
So a Goal of making 5 sales a day is a great Goal, but one that can’t be pinned down to an exact time frame to complete like exercise is for instance. It may take us an hour or it may take all day and night to get that 5th sale. So does that make it a bad Goal? Of course not! A Goal that is about something we can only influence is a great way to force us to get better at thing. It forces us to hone our skills and be more disciplined. That’s what really makes it a great Goal.
Whenever I have clients who complain about not being able to make progress toward their Goals, whatever they are, I take them back to the beginning. What is your Why for this Goal? Maybe it’s not as important as you once thought. If not, let that Goal go or re-prioritize it. After that we break down the Goal into steps. Most Goals will have some pattern of steps or stages to them. Once we know what these are, we can determine which ones we can turn into trackable action items, or habits. If I am going to make 5 sales a day, what is my sales rate? How many people do I need to give my sales presentation to before I get a sale? Let’s say it’s 5 people. How many did I need to call, talk to or contact to get that appointment to meet or talk? Let’s say 4 people.
So, to make one sale, I need to talk to 100 people. Of those 100, 25 will hear my sales presentation and 5 of those will buy. Put another way 25% of everyone I talk to will listen to my presentation. and 20% of those people will buy. Overall 5% of the people I talk to would end up buying from me.
What are the things I can control here? The number of people I talk to of course. My habit should be to talk to 100 people each day if I want to make those 5 sales. I can break that habit down into other habits. I can have a habit of cold-calling 25 people. I can have the habit of following up on 50 internet leads. I can have the habit of taking 25 sales calls each day from my company. I can have the habit of spending 2 hours a day prospecting for new leads through online activities like ads, list swaps, guest blogging or driving traffic. Or I can spend that 2 hours honing my skills to present better, speak better and being more informed about my products and potential customers.
I can control myself, my thoughts, words and actions. That’s all. When a Goal is too big to wrap our minds around right now, the best thing to do is to break it down into the series of repeating actions that you can turn into habits. These build regular successes throughout the process and builds confidence in ourselves too. All our Goals should be supported by good habits, because the real progress we make isn’t usually the big leaps or giant steps forward, though that can happen. Our Success is more often found in the small, daily actions we take again and again to get us there.
