How are you doing this quarter?” How often have you heard this from your sales manager?
Many times, no doubt. That’s because he or she wants to hear about your accountability without listening forever or hearing generalities. And how have you responded? If you haven’t answered with crisp, on-target answers, then it’s time to start journaling.
You may say to yourself, “What’s journaling?” Or “Good idea, but I just don’t have the time.”
Journaling means writing down your daily self-evaluations of your sales efforts. It takes about five minutes a day. If you journal, you’ll have all the pertinent answers you need at your fingertips. Once you get started, you’ll be glad you did. Guaranteed.
But first, you need a model to follow.
Here’s a one with specific categories that works well and is easy to do:
Behavior: What are the non-negotiable actions you must do today to help you generate income for yourself and your firm. Your writing should be concise. Non-negotiable actions help you to keep it simple and to layout your must-do actions.
Attitude: Here’s where you pinpoint beliefs and attitudes you need to possess to reach all behavioral goals. You examine your thoughts and attitudes—positive and negative-- this helps you to think about what attitudes you might have to change to sell better.
Gratitude: Whatever you do, remind yourself of the good things in your life you can be thankful for over the last 24 hours. Then list your short-term goals for the next 30, 60, and 90 days.
Evaluation: Evaluate how you spent the last 24 hours. Did you meet your behavior, attitude, and gratitude goals and your sales goals? Also write down why for positive achievements and for negative outcomes.
Lessons Learned: What selling lessons have you learned and put into practice in the past 40 hours. For example, you may have learned more productive sales techniques to put into
Successes: List and reflect on your business and personal successes in the last 24 hours. Then--and this is important--decide how you want to reward yourself for these successes.
Remember. Just five minutes a day is all you need to journal, to maintain accountability for yourself, and to have specific answers at the ready when your sales manager asks. “How are you doing this quarter?
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