If asked, most people would say they have goals.  So… why do only a rare handful of people actually achieve their goals?  Experts report only 3% of the population sets goals, and only 1% actually GET the goals they set.

Does that mean the remaining 97-99% of the population is just a bunch of losers?  NO!  It means most people have made some common mistakes when it comes to setting and getting goals.

3 Common Goal Flaws

When you don’t get your goals understand your failure is probably a result of:

• Not writing your goals down
• Setting the wrong goals
• Setting passive goals that do not specifically require action

You can achieve lots of goals without writing those goals down.  However, those goals are typically related to things you currently own the capacity to achieve because you have achieved that goal on one or more occasions previously.  Yet, once you venture into new territories in goal setting, if you don’t write those goals down you are not likely to get them.

The concept of SMART goals has been around since the 1950’s.  These goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time bound

Before we get to how you might write a goal let’s talk about the fact that most people set the wrong goals.  Most people either set outcome goals, or they set action goals that don’t necessarily produce results.  Here’s what I mean.

When thinking about the Transformation critical factor from the last post the desired final outcome is clients.  Here’s a goal many people would set… I will get 8 new clients a month.

Is it specific?  Well, 8 is specific.

Can you measure it?  Yes, you can measure both progress and completion.

Is it achievable?  Here’s where things get a little gray because getting 8 new clients a month is achievable if you are prepared to actually accomplish that beyond simply setting a goal.

Is it realistic?  If you aren’t consistently getting clients now suddenly getting 8 new clients a month may NOT be a realistic goal.

Is it time bound?  Yes, but that doesn’t mean anything is actually going to happen.  Bottom line this goal is just all wrong.

Realistically you could never achieve this goal related to the Transformation critical factor until you completed goals from the Significance critical factor.  Here’s a goal many have set that would fall under the Significance critical factor… I will make 100 cold calls, set appointments with 3 of those contacted, and close one new client each week.  Boy, that sure sounds like it meets all the SMART goal criteria making it a good goal.

Here’s the hidden problem with goals like that.  If you aren’t currently experiencing that kind of success from cold calling there’s a reason for that…

• You aren’t calling the right people
• You aren’t engaging the people you call
• You can’t help the people you talk to see a benefit from taking an action that moves them closer to you

Randomly calling people is a waste of time, one of your most precious assets.  When you don’t know who the best people to contact are, when you don’t have something to say that immediately grabs their interest, when you don’t know how to guide the people you call to take actions they already want to take… it doesn’t matter how many people you call.  You’re effectiveness isn’t going to significantly improve by simply doing the same things.  When you read “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” you’ll find out exactly how to overcome each of those challenges.

So if you decided cold calling would be how you would get clients then before you could make that happen your first goal might be…  I will read and complete “How to Get More New Clients in 9 Days” in 9 days, then I will prepare to make cold calls by making a list 100 people I will contact, and I will start making my first calls within 2 weeks.

A goal like that fulfills all the SMART criteria.  Another reason this is a good goal rather than a wrong goal is because once you complete this goal you will have learned a lot.  And you can take that knowledge and experience and write your next achievable goal.  Each goal moves you closer to your overall objective.

When people set wrong goals they don’t win.  When you set the right goals focused on the right things you get lots of small successes.  Each success moves you at least one step closer to the overall success you really want.

Sometimes you need to set becoming goals.  These types of goals are very conceptual by nature yet you have to turn concepts into actions.  Perhaps you want to become a recognized expert.  The only way to make that happen is one step at a time.  On the way to becoming a recognized expert you may set a goal to… Write an article on your topic and get that article published in a trade newsletter.

Now review the 5 critical factors from your “Strategic Sales Master Plan” and start writing goals to fulfill those critical factors.  Get to work and start writing;-)

Coach Cheryl

Do it Yourself

Do it with a Little Help

Do it with Guidance

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under sales coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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