Colleen’s Blog

Wow. We are officially in 2016. You're hearing me talk a lot about activities and tips for starting 2016 on the right foot. This is a deliberate attempt to help you focus on getting ahead and making the upcoming year your most successful to date. If you're reading this blog and taking the time to increase your knowledge, I know you can do it. Speaking of focus, what are you focused on in your day-to-day tasks and routines?

“This year is going to be MY year.” Almost without fail, each year we all hear phrases like this leading into January. It’s a good thing. It shows that most people have a genuine interest in being successful. Unfortunately, interest alone is not enough to follow through with creating real success. You must develop an unwavering commitment to your success and follow through by taking serious action. Over the years, I have worked with and observed many successful salespeople. By successful, I mean they are pulling in at least $500,000 or more in personal income each year. Find one of these successful salespeople - better yet, find five of them. Take note of the things that they all have in common with each other. Yes, there will be some differences in their styles, methods and philosophies. After all, they’re different people! But, if you can pinpoint their similarities, you can absorb those traits, understand their daily activities and help your entire sales team implement similar routines to bring them success as well. To help out your cause, here are a few similarities that I have found exist in the successful salespeople that I have observed:

Do you turn your computer on each morning only to find a mountain of unread emails that need your attention? Email overload is an epidemic in the workplace. Most salespeople that we poll tell us that they spend up to 40% of their day just managing email correspondence between clients and internal partners. If this sounds about right for you as well, let me put things into perspective. If you continue this trend throughout 2016 and work 5 days a week, you will spend 104 days next year in your email inbox. If you manage a sales team of 10 people, that is almost 3 years of collective time in 2016 between your sales team that will be spent in an email inbox and not actually selling. If you manage a sales team of 100 people, well...you can do the math. It's time to re-align your mindset. Email does not close business for you. You close sales based on your personal relationships. Stop working so hard behind your computer and go meet customers in person, or pick up the phone and call them. In order to increase productivity (and sales) you must learn to manage your email inbox. <-- Click To Tweet Here are 5 tips for staying on top of your emails:

"How do I get my sales team to buy into our corporate objectives?" Are you asking yourself a similar question? I hear it come up often, so if you're asking it to yourself, you're not alone! Aligning individual objectives with corporate objectives can be an intimidating obstacle to overcome. Contrary to popular belief, your team isn't simply going to do just what you want. The individuals on your team are motivated by their own interests, goals and objectives. <-- Click to Tweet If you read that last sentence carefully, you'll find the answer you're seeking. Let me explain.

Wow - we’re already in December. It’s hard to believe that we're in the final month of the year already. Time flies, doesn’t it?! I’m sure you’re already thinking ahead to 2016. But, before you pull out the planning boards and strategy documents, don’t forget to first analyze your successes and drawbacks in 2015. Ask yourself key questions, answer them, and use those answers as building blocks for planning 2016. <-- Click To Tweet I want you to succeed and I want 2016 to be your best year ever. Here are several questions you may want to ask yourself to make that happen: