Tune-Up Time

Give your career a spark with these five steps for reevaluating your goals.

Robert A. Arzt, CLU, ChFC, LLIF

Whether you are new to the industry or an experienced professional, the way to sales success begins with a clear vision of what you want your sales success to be. Your vision will change throughout your career as new opportunities and challenges appear on the horizon and you prepare for each stage in your career.

Agents will do the hard work of creating their vision, mission, goals, objectives and rewards. But all too often, they never revisit them to see if they’ve kept pace with how they, as professionals, may have changed or grown. It’s one thing to keep up with your goals, but are they keeping up with you? If you haven’t completed this type of exercise, now would be a good time to do so. Here are five parts of that evaluation process, which ultimately will help you create and maintain the sales career you desire:

IT'S ONE THING TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR GOALS, BUT ARE THEY KEEPING UP WITH YOU?

Unwavering commitment to a sales-career mission. Why are you in this career? The answer to this question is your sales mission statement. It formally and concisely describes the reason you have chosen the career (or wish to remain in it); it sets forth your purpose and priorities, and describes the direction you want to take. It can act as the criterion for all of the major career decisions you make. Your sales-career mission should be in perfect harmony with your personal values. It’s not a specific goal for some date in the future, but a statement of what you will strive to accomplish in all of your day-to-day business activities.

Vision. Have a detailed mental picture of the future you want to create for your sales career as you faithfully pursue your mission. First, pick a time two to five years from now. Next, think about it as though your vision were real now, and ask yourself what is happening in each of the following areas that gives you a feeling of satisfaction:

• What have you achieved?
• What are your relationships?
• How is your business and personal life?
• How are you experiencing freedom?
• How are you are having fun?

Clear goals. One of the hardest things for people to master is setting clear goals. The problem isn’t that they don’t know what a clear goal is, or that it should be precise, should be in writing and should be accomplishable by a set deadline. The problem is that they can’t figure out what their goals are. Don’t let that get in the way. Set your clear goals and write them down, and then you’ll be ready for the next step.

Action plans. Once you have written clear and precise goals, write specific, measurable and incremental steps you will take to move closer to attaining each of your stated goals. Action plans may also include getting access to people, resources, education, equipment, etc., that will further your progress.

A way of managing your progress. The journey to achieving your mission, vision and goals is never static. You change, and so do your environment and circumstances. Take a lesson from the NASA playbook. When a rocket or space probe speeds toward the moon, Mars, a comet or other celestial body, its guidance system constantly receives tracking feedback so that it can make needed course corrections. While each course correction may be very small, taken cumulatively, they make that critical difference between a failed mission and a successful one.

Enjoy the process. By completing these exercises, you will have discovered some things about yourself and will have developed a new level of awareness and know-how that will serve you well. Be advised that your journey never really comes to an end. Stay open to new ideas and possibilities. Remember that while change is inevitable, growth is optional. It’s all up to you!

Robert A. Arzt, CLU, ChFC, LLIF, CEO of Polaris One, coaches professionals who want to achieve more. Contact him at 301-610-5624, or visit his website at www.PolarisOne.com. For a free copy of Sales Success Factors, email him at bob@bobarzt.com.