“Fresh Starts”

Somehow, the New Year, particularly for sellers, represents a fresh start. Regardless of our performance in the past fiscal year, we start the New Year anew. If we blew away our quotas in 2023, pretty soon managers will be asking “What have you done lately?” If we missed our goals, that is all behind us, and we start anew.

We may have set a few resolutions for the New Year. Things we might do better.

Inevitably, there will be SKOs–inspirational messages, new goals/strategies/initiatives, and training. There will be brief celebrations of what was accomplished last year, and cheerleading for the new fiscal year and goals.

And then we go back to do our jobs……. We pick up the deals that were in process last year, hoping to move them forward. We settle into the same daily routines. Despite, what we may have learned in the SKO, we fall back into the same old habits and strategies we always used. The ones that may not have worked that well. And after a month or so, things don’t look that different from last year.

But what if we could make a Fresh Start?

What if we could choose one thing we might do differently, that would both improve our performance and the satisfaction we get from the job? What would you choose?

We might choose to do more of what we have done in the past. We have tools enabling us to ramp volume and velocity, enable us to do more in the time we have.

We might choose to rethink how we engage our customers, particularly if our past engagement strategies haven’t worked as well as we have hoped.

As managers and leaders, we have the opportunity for a Fresh Start, as well. What one thing might you choose to do differently?

Would you ramp up the pressure on people to perform?

Would you focus on new tools, programs to make people more efficient?

Would you spend more time coaching and developing your people?

Would you focus on setting an example through your behavior and what you do?

There is no single right choice, it will be different for each of us, depending on our situations and our goals (business and personal).

But we have the opportunity for a Fresh Start. What one new thing will you choose? What one new thing will you master and build into a daily habit, not a passing resolution?

Choose one thing new and different. Imagine what it might produce.

What is your first step?