Sorry for the little hiatus I took there on the blog posts. I needed to take a break and recharge my batteries for a while (see the image of me with fruity drink in Hawaii). Now I’m back and ready to crush it in 2014.

This is the time of year when the slate is wiped clean and we have to start all over again. Whatever we did last year doesn’t matter anymore. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a little frustrating but regardless it is what it is and part of what being a Sales professional is all about.  Our new quotas are probably bigger than last year with territories that are smaller. So what are you going to do? Do you have a plan or are you just going to try and work harder and hope for the best? I don’t know about you but hope doesn’t pay my bills and if I work any harder I might just pass out. So, we have to put together a plan which is what this blog post is focused on.

The first thing I do when I get my quota is to double it.  That’s right, double it. It may sound rough but success is a mentality and I don’t like being average. One of my favorite quotes is from Vince Lombardi when he said “strive for perfection, settle for excellence.” Perfection is usually unattainable but excellence is a nice fall back if you miss it. After doubling my quota I then back into the numbers to figure out what I need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to hit it.  I call this ‘Knowing Your Equation” and I use this spreadsheet to figure it out.  The cells highlighted in yellow are the ones that need to be adjusted based on your own situation. Input your quota, average deal size and then estimate the conversion ratios between each stage from cold call through to close. The spreadsheet then auto-calculates and shows the activities you need to be doing every day, week and month.  I included another section for those of you who get meetings given to you from other sources like inside sales or the channel or whatever. If you have any questions about how the spreadsheet works let me know and I’ll be happy to walk you through it.

Now that I know what I need to do I set my goals accordingly and measure my progress every week. This gets back to the Science versus the Art of Sales that I’m always talking about. If you don’t know what you need to do to hit your quota and aren’t working off a plan you better be a damn good artist. Be a scientist and watch your art excel. Good luck and happy selling!