Let's Talk About Goals

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                          Goals: "Reach for the sky."                 
                               "The Sky is the limit."            



This is something that we hear quite often when we are growing up; and then when we get into the real world and our goals reach for the sky, we are told to make them more realistic.

Well lets talk about how to make your seemingly unrealistic goals very realistic.

I will start off by sharing my own personal  business building goals.

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My goal is to work on building my business 50 hours a week during the first two weeks of the month
70 hours during the last two weeks of the month ( That's 50 hours during the week and 20 hours during the weekend )
Daily my goal is to prospect 80 local businesses.
Weekly my goal is to prospect 400 local businesses.
Out of this activity I would like to accomplish 16 new accounts open a week. ( This goal I know is really low for the amount of activity and that's perfect because I know that it will be met + some. )
That is an average of 4 accounts daily.

My goals are seemingly unrealistic seeing that I do my own equipment downloads and delivery for my clients, and I do my own personal customer service. So how am I going to make these seemingly unrealistic goals more realistic!?

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Lets start by breaking down the day for starters.      


My day begins at 6:30am ( when I get to bed on time, just being honest )
Anything that needs to be done as far as organization and route setting is done in the early hours before businesses open. This frees up the time for when I can be out prospecting new businesses.
* Note business opening and closing times will change from demographic to demographic.*

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If I schedule my time where I prospect 10 businesses in each hour ( this does not take a full hour at all ) this means that I have time for scheduled appointments and service calls. *To make sure you obtain this goal you should plan to prospect in the areas that you are going to be in at specific time frames.*
If I work eight hours a day out in the field I will be busy but I will hit that goal of 80 businesses prospected.
This break down will give you ( if you have the same goal ) 400 prospected businesses a week.
I don't have any children, so for me this is not unrealistic. Break down your days according to your life cycle.

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All of this can get really complicated so what I suggest is buying a binder and creating lead sheets. Lead sheets are sheets that you use to write down information regarding the businesses you have walked into. Rather or not you got to speak to the business owner, if the lead is warm, hot, or cold; the name of their current processor ( or whatever product and services you are offering ) etc...


To go along with the lead sheets create a spreadsheet that helps you to track your activity and your goals. This sheet should include the days of the week, how many businesses you prospected on each day, how many follow-up visits you made, how many statements you collected, how many applications you sent in for approval, how many appointments set, and how many presentations you have completed. Also you might want to track how many decision makers you got in contact with that day. All of this can help you become a better sales professional. How? Analytics! You can use these numbers to see where your problem areas are, what your closing ratio is at each stage and use those numbers to gauge where you need the most improvement.

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Sounds tiring, I know, but trust once you get used to it it's a peace of cake ( your favorite kind ). Keeping track of all these things will also give you a better view of how your pay check is going to look or how your bank deposits are going to add up during the week. 

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As they say "show me your appointment book and I can tell you your paycheck" How? Because someone who crunches the numbers and figures out the ratios can tell by your activity what you will accomplish financially. You should be able to do the same thing. If you're not that mathematically inclined then ask a friend who is. It all is for the greater good of your pocket book and lively hood.


So tell me, what are your business goals?

Adrienne Johnson
ALJ.CreditProcessing@gmail.com
Subject Line: Processing Inquiry
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