Just the other day, I was driven to Orlando’s airport by a fantastic guy named Carlos. After talking for a few minutes about how I help sales people and entrepreneurs double sales, we began talking about his incredible life. Here was a guy that never finished high school, but had built up a nice limousine business. After a few minutes of talking, I asked him, “What would you like to be doing in five years?”
At first, he said that he’d never been asked that and that he wasn’t sure. But upon some reflection, he began describing to me all of the traveling he’d like to do and the dream home he would like to build with his wife. After that, I asked him, “How much do you need to earn in order to make that a reality?” He said, that he would need to bring in about $250K (more than double where he was now).
Then we began to break down those numbers. How many vehicles he would need. What kind of a profit margin he would have to maintain. And finally many customers he’d need to find.
By the end of the ride, Carlos and I had developed a nice start to his five year plan.
What is your five year plan? Where would you like to be? And how much do you have to make in order to make that all possible?
So few sales people are successful because most are not clear on where they’d like to end up.
Once you know where you want to end up, you must simply work backwards and create your prospecting playbook to map out exactly how you get there. In my book, Game Plan Selling, you learn exactly how to create your own playbook to ensure success. Either way, be sure that you have a solid path, knowing exactly how many calls, introductions asked-for, brochures sent, email blasts and client repurchases you need to get there.
Written by Marc Wayshak, author of Game Plan Selling: The Definitive Rulebook for Closing the Sale in the Age of the Well-Informed Prospect.
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