Category Archives for Success System
Do Goals Really Matter?
January 2014 is now behind us and most people that set New Year’s resolutions have already given up on them.
So many people fail at their New Year’s resolution that they are kind of a joke. Did you set one? Have you failed already?
The fact is it’s not the resolution that’s the problem. It’s the mindset behind it. If you approach your resolution hoping to do better then it’s pretty much a guarantee you’re going to fail. On the other hand if you are committed to making it happen and you have genuinely decided that you are going to stick to your commitment no matter what you are much more likely to succeed.
If you take it a step further and you write down your goal and you commit to a plan of action, studies show, you are more than 80% likely to reach your goal.
People that write down their goals, have a clear action plan as well as a clear understanding, and powerful reason, for why they have set their goal and they review their goal every day are 97% more likely to reach their goal.
If you knew you could be 97% more likely to achieve something why wouldn’t you take the extra steps I just mentioned to help ensure your success?
The fact is even with all the studies showing that goal setting works less than 20% actually set goals and of those that do only a small percentage so so in a way that virtually guarantees their success.
So do goals really matter. Absolutely! Even if you’re doing it wrong you will still benefit from having a plan. If you do it right you will find it almost impossible to fail. In reality even if you don’t hit what you were actually shooting for many times as you get closer to achieving your goal you will find a better opportunity or slightly different goal to set your sights on.
The key is to be deliberate about your intentions so that your whole mind can help you get where you want to be. As the old saying goes; “Those that fail to plan, plan to fail.”
Ask yourself the following questions to see how committed you are to your own success in 2014:
- What are you goals for 2014?
- Are they written down?
- Do they have a deadline?
- Have you put together an action plan to get you there?
- Do you review your goals every day?
- Are you prepared to make adjustments along the way so you reach your goal?
The choice is yours. Do you want to put in motion a process that virtually guarantees your success or do you just want to be at the mercy of your circumstances?
Share you goals in the comment below to let the whole world know you will make this your best year ever.
3 Secrets To Successful Follow Up
Did you know that according to recent research 49% of all leads are never followed up on?
Why do you think that is?
From the clients I’ve worked with it seems there are several reasons.
- Lack of automation – many people are still trying to do their follow up one at a time and when they don’t get to it right away they rationalize that it’s too late so they don’t bother at all.
- The problem is that a lot of people were specifically looking for what you had to offer and when you rationalize not following up all you’re doing is lying to yourself so you can avoid a perceived discomfort. You owe it to anyone that reaches out to you to follow up with them.
- Solution: Automate as much of your follow up as you can. Use an auto-responder to immediately reply with the most common information you know your prospects want and a strong call to action encouraging them to take the next step. Then follow that up with a phone call.
- Fear of rejection – this is one of the most common reasons I’ve found for failure to follow up. This is robbing you and your prospect in so many ways it is really a whole post all by itself.
- Solution – Change the way you think and the objective you have for the follow up. The fact is the prospect is asking for information. Now, you’re real job is to see if they are qualified for what you have to offer. You are not calling to make a sale so there is no way you can be rejected. If they are qualified, great, you can make an offer. If they aren’t qualified, great, you can help them out by pointing them in the right direction. Either way you win and either way you owe if to the prospect to help them out.
- Too busy to keep up – This is a great problem to have but only if you have it because you are dealing with more clients than you can handle. Most of the time the only reason this is an issue is because (if you will be honest with yourself) you’re too busy doing busy work or chasing prospects that keep putting you off but won’t say “No”.
- Solution – Learn to properly qualify prospects in or out and stop chasing the people that are never going to sign up. In fact don’t chase at all. Get them out of your pipeline to make room for people that are ready to do business now. Put everyone else in an automated drip to maintain top of mind awareness and let them raise their hand and tell you when they are ready.
If you dig deep you will find that there are more reasons people don’t follow up on their leads but I have found these 3 to be the most common. If you aren’t following up on all of your leads figure out why and fix it. You will find that many of the leads you aren’t getting to are the ones just waiting to sign up.
Let me know what challenges you’ve had with following up on leads and while you’re at it tell me what you’re going to do to solve the problem.
I Hate Prospecting So I’m Going To Automate My Marketing
The reason so many people hate prospecting or reaching out and following up on leads they have generated is they hate selling and they are doing their prospecting all wrong.
It seems like every time I turn around I run into a coach or consultant that doesn’t have very many clients but they are convinced that if they just do more marketing everything will be fine.
What is really happening is they don’t want to have a sales conversation so they are looking for a process that skips that step and get’s them clients any way. I’m going channel a little Dr. Phil here; “How’s that working for ya?”
My guess is it’s not working all that well.
So let’s take a look at why. In order to sign up clients you should stop trying to get around having a sales conversation. People buy from people and if you’re a coach or consultant you aren’t selling a widget you are selling personal transformation.
The reason you are avoiding the sales conversation is usually because you’re uncomfortable in the role of salesperson. If you’re like most people I work with your view of salespeople in general is not good. So when you start to sell someone something you feel slimy or disingenuous even though you believe in what you have to offer.
This creates doubt in your mind because you’re uncomfortable and it comes across as a lack of confidence to your prospect. So most of the time they don’t sign up for what you have to offer. Then because you want to help them so much you slip in to coaching mode and start coaching them right there in what should be an enrollment conversation. Any of this sound familiar?
What you have to understand (and I know that deep down you do) is that if you fix the easy problem they were willing to share with you they think they solved their problems so they don’t need a coach or consultant. They don’t have your experience and haven’t really been honest with themselves either so they don’t even really understand what the underlying issue is that’s holding them back. As a coach or consultant you know that even though you can help your clients have breakthroughs early on the really big breakthroughs come after they have had some successes and the trust relationship has been established and they are willing to really open up.
Do yourself and your clients a favor and stop coaching during enrollment calls. That is not the place to solve problems. It’s the place to uncover problems and show them that you have a plan that will help them get where they want to be.
Stop trying to sell and simply uncover problems and what the cost of those problems are while determining if you are a good fit to work together or not. If you are, and only if you are, then you can propose a program to help them. If you can’t help them refer them to someone that can help them or simply tell them that you don’t believe what you have to offer is right for them.
When you are no longer focused on selling and instead put the prospect and their needs first you will find the sale takes care of itself. That’s Healthy Selling.
If you struggle with your sales or you have a breakthrough you want to share leave a comment or a question.