Selling is a process of setting goals and achieving them. People in sales are probably better than most at setting goals. You are constantly budgeting sales and comparing actual against budget. But goal setting often slips when it comes to ourselves.

You will enhance your career and effectiveness by focusing on yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily goals. Your goals are your roadmap to a successful future. They will determine the direction in which you are headed and ensure that you reach your destination. Here’s how to set goals:

  1. Create your personal vision of where you see yourself five to ten years ahead. Don’t be modest. Picture yourself as being highly successful. Then imagine your success described as a newspaper headline. Create that headline and superimpose it on a newspaper. Then copy it and post it on your wall next to your mission so that you never forget what you need to do daily (mission) and where you are headed (vision).
  2. To achieve your goals you have to know exactly what they are. Make sure they are challenging and SMART:
    • S pecific. “I want to be the top-selling rep in the company” is much better than, “I want to improve this year.”
    • M easurable. “I want to sell 20% more than I did last year.”
    • A greed upon
    • R ealistic
    • T ime-based
  3. Write your goals down. Post them in a spot where you can see them. Refer to them for motivation.
  4. Make sure your goals do not conflict with your fundamental values. There’s no point planning to make a fortune if you are happy with what you have or if you are leery about exploiting others on the way to the top.
  5. Put your goals in order of importance. At the top of the list go the goals that satisfy a personal need. Do these things first. If you want to spend more time with your family, arrange your schedule to enable you to do so. You can’t wait for your schedule to arrange itself.
  6. Formulate a plan. What do you need to do tomorrow? next month? next year? Once you have a long-range plan, you can stop worrying about next year and apply yourself to the task at hand.
  7. Check your plan regularly. Have you met your monthly goals? And are they taking you where you want to go? If not, now is the time to reformulate them.
  8. Look at your goals often to see if you’re on track.
  9. Once you’ve set goals, make a list of roadblocks that are standing in your way. Ignore those that are unlikely to happen. With the balance, highlight those that you have control over. Develop a plan to solve them one at a time. For example, you might consider a lack of training as a roadblock. So, develop a plan to get some training through your preferred learning method – reading, self-study, computer-based training, or workshops.