|
Highly successful men and women have
one thing in common: they have specific predetermined goals that they
work towards. If you want to win big in life, your first step on the
highway to success begins with you, a piece of paper and a pen. When we get into our automobiles each day, we usually know where we are going and proceed accordingly. To quote motivational expert Bob Conklin, “If people operated their automobiles the way they operate their lives, they would never get out of the driveway.” Before people start their cars, they usually know where they want to go. If they don't know how to get to their destination, they look at a map. Then they start the car, applying the energy and power to complete the action. These principles are involved in
operating your life. You cannot be directed to success and big money if
you don't know where you are going. You cannot accomplish great things
if you don't know what you want to accomplish. Goals are a key
ingredient in success. However, there are people who fail who say they
had a goal in mind. What went wrong? Why do some people achieve their
goals and some do not? Having a goal in mind is not enough. Setting
goals properly so that you arrive safely at your predetermined
destination requires several ingredients. The best recipe in the world
may not work if an important ingredient is left out. Let's examine the
different components for successful goal setting. It's important that you be specific
in your goals. It's not enough that you want more money. Exactly how
much do you want? You can't just want your sales to increase, but you
must have in mind exactly how much. In order to get excited about your
goals of making more money, you must examine why you want more. Is it
for a new car, a vacation, or retirement? Again you must be specific.
What kind of car do you want — what color, etc.? Where would you like
to go on that vacation? If you write down that you want to make more
money and are not specific, you can make $1 more next month and you have
reached your goal. When you are able to see the end
result clearly in your mind, your imagination translates that vision
into energy. You must remember the principle of imagination and energy
when working with your goals and train yourself to be specific. When you
can clearly define what you want, so you can vividly see it in your
imagination and strongly desire it, you will put great amounts of energy
into creating the conditions that results in achieving your goals. When you harness your energy into
goal-oriented activities, you create within yourself a power to attain
anything you want. Think of the ideas in your mind as being rays of
light. Diffused light can fall harmlessly on a sheet of paper. Yet when
that light is focused through a magnifying glass, it creates fire.
Intensely focused, this same amount of light can become a laser beam
that will cut through steel. What is the wave length of the ideas in
your mind right now? Scattered energy can be exhausting and create
nothing. How do you get your staff to be goal directed so you can
increase productivity? At least once a month, you need to have goal
setting meetings in which your staff discusses the things each person
wants to have and do. Hearing others talk of large goals will push
smaller thinkers out of their self-limiting comfort zone into a higher
comfort zone. Too often managers push their sales staff to “sell more” when actually they could achieve much more if they got them to “want more”. The salesperson fueled by a burning desire to achieve his or her own personal goals sees more people, works harder and closes more sales. This results in an even higher billing than the quota that you as managers might have given him or her. The salesperson with no personal desire, under pressure from management to achieve a quota, is the salesperson who procrastinates and doesn't put enough time into actively selling. Since salespeople are on their own,
you must be sure they are self-motivated to achieve their goals. Your
salespeople also must set their own goals. No one puts out extra effort
to achieve someone else's goal. High-performance behavior comes only
when people are working toward a goal they have set for themselves and
want to achieve. Granted, you need to set some quota for your
salespeople, but often—once you make them goal directed—their sales
figures may far exceed your original monthly projections.
So, the next step in goal setting with your staff is to make them
expand their “comfort zones.” In your meetings ask how much money
each want to earn, guiding them to set the amount larger than the amount
they are already making. You must teach them to stretch, but also to be
realistic. After they decide how much they want to make per month, they
must determine what their monthly billing figure will be. Remember,
start with the amount of money they want to make. Salespeople, like
their customers, care about what's in it for them. However, this works only if you have
been using positive goal-setting techniques each week with encouragement
from you to your staff to constantly stretch out of old “comfort
zones”. You need a board to write on during your sales meetings. After
asking each person how much he or she wants to make, write on the board
how much each one needs to sell to make what he or she wants. If some
one's figures add up to $2,824, get them excited about making $3,500
instead. That's only $676 more. Give a gentle push to some one making
$4,200 to set a new goal of $5,000. Each person committing to just a
little more begins to raise your group's monthly figures higher and
higher. It is up to you as a manager to show them the opportunity to do
more and give them pride in their achievements. Each day you must create
excitement toward achieving their goals by using applause during sales
meetings and praise for sales made. Create harmony in your sales
department so that its members are not only excited about their own
sales, but also about each other's sales. It's important to have long-term and
short-term goals. Since salespeople do not always see immediate results
from long-term goals, they can become discouraged with them. You should
break short-term goals into bite-sized pieces to make them appear easier
to attain. For example, $1,000 is only $250 per week. It is also important that all goals
be in the present tense. In the Bible, it says, “What things so ever
you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall
have them.” (Mark 11:24). If you say, “I will make $1,500 more next
month”, your subconscious hears “next month” forever. The
subconscious takes thoughts literally so next month will never arrive,
it will always be “next month”, never “now”. Instead, you must
say, “I am now making $1,500 more now”, even though you are not yet
doing that. It takes at least 21 days of repeating and believing this to
reprogram your mind. You can't outrun the “picture”
in your subconscious mind. This means that what you believe is what you
get. If someone loses weight but still sees themselves as a fat person,
he/she will regain the weight. You always go to the “picture” in
your mind. The key to success is to change the
“picture” in your mind before you start the action required to
achieve your goal. Do that with positive affirmations cards. Write down
your goals in the present tense and say them aloud three times each day.
Another reprogramming devise is the dream chart. Cut out pictures
representing your goals (a new car, house, job title, relationship,
etc.) and paste them on a piece of construction paper. The subconscious
mind thinks in pictures so let these “snapshots” of your goals
filter into your subconscious by studying them every day. This sounds simple, and it is! So, why isn't everyone you meet at the top? It is not only positive thinking, it is positive believing and positive acting. You can't just read this and have all your dreams come true. You must put these concepts into action. It takes a great deal of mental strength to maintain a positive attitude and to truly believe you have attained the goals for which you are still striving. It is worth the effort because it does work! If you follow these guidelines, you will be happier, more successful, and richer in everything you do. |
