{"id":7876,"date":"2012-10-23T17:34:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T17:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7876"},"modified":"2014-10-06T01:19:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T01:19:29","slug":"turns-out-hope-is-also-a-lousy-sales-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7876","title":{"rendered":"Turns Out “Hope” Is Also a Lousy Sales Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are all hopeful in January.\u00a0 We all share a sense of relief that the struggles of the past year are behind us, our slate is clean and we have twelve full months to make all our goals come true.\u00a0\u00a0 This is true for CEOs and Sales Leaders more than anyone else in the company.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cA tough year is past and we lived to fight another day,\u201d<\/em> as the saying goes.<\/p>\n

But right now, it\u2019s fourth quarter and we\u2019re in the thick of the battle. Maybe we still have a chance to hit the original sales goal if those elusive big deals close on time.\u00a0 Possibly we\u2019re just clinging to hope and a prayer that we can hit our revised forecast. \u00a0\u00a0The odds say most of us are in one of those two camps.<\/p>\n

How Did We Get Here?<\/h3>\n

Try to recall the conversations you had with yourself back in January about your 2012 sales objectives.\u00a0 After you made your commitments to the board and locked the company\u2019s sales quota for the year \u2013 were you optimistic of your chances or already fighting back the doubts?\u00a0\u00a0 Too many CEOs and Sales Leaders (if they\u2019re being honest with themselves) will admit that their 2012 sales plan was 10% preparation and 90% hope.\u00a0\u00a0 And Hope, as everyone knows, is NOT a Strategy! \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Avoiding A Sales Strategy Built on Hope<\/h3>\n

If you found yourself with these doubts and concerns in January, you were facing a stacked deck before the first hand was dealt.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • I hope<\/em> the economy finally improves.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> our sales leadership really does hold the team accountable.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> those new sales reps are as good they interviewed.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> our competition quits cutting prices.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> our big marketing investment pays off.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> we finally have a strong first quarter.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> those new markets grow like we need them to.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> our channel partners have better years.<\/li>\n
  • I hope<\/em> our top sales reps don\u2019t leave us.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Were any of these hopes entering your mind back in January?\u00a0 Regrettably, there\u2019s little you can do now to minimize their impact on your 2012 results.<\/p>\n

    Next year however can be a turning point for your sales team and a winning year for the company!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We are all hopeful in January.\u00a0 We all share a sense of relief that the struggles of the past year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8158,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876\/revisions\/8158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}