HOW TO MAKE THIS YEAR YOUR BEST YEAR IN SALES

Hey, before we get into the interview, I want to make sure you're aware of our other podcasts, the Sales Questions, Brutally Honest Answers Show, which is a very quick, under 5 minutes in most cases, sometimes just a few minutes where I answer your questions. You can just send me any question to my LinkedIn profile, Brian G. Burns, and I'll put it in the queue to answer. Also, the Sales Leadership Show. If you're looking to get into sales leadership or you want to hear from the world's best sales leaders, that's where I interview them. Check it out, the Sales Leadership Show. Also at b2brevenue.com, you can learn all about all the courses. Links are in the show notes below, as well as our link to our partners over at brevitypitch.com, the fastest, easiest way to become great at sales and practice. Before it's showtime. Here we go. A year sure seems like a lot of time, doesn't it?

It does. It sneaks up on you though, right? It's, it's like the same thing every year. It goes by really, really quickly, and next thing you know, you're already in March and you're like, man, I didn't even plan for the year accordingly. Or it's, or it's the end of almost the holiday time and you're like, what happened this year? So it sneaks up on you. And I have different ways I try to get prepared or wind down the year. And over the years, it's sort of helped me get ready for the next one.

So what do you do?

So one thing that I think is unique that maybe not everyone does is I do— at some point along the way, someone taught me this idea of doing this 3-year vision and basically writing down in deep detail like where you want to be 3 years from now. Part of that's work for sure. So, hey, I want to be making this amount of money. I want to be living here. I want to have this type of work schedule. I want to be this position, this title. I mean, you get very detailed about it, but you also can put other parts of your, your life as well, you know, whether that be family relationships, etc. So you basically write out this 3-year vision. It gives you a good guide of where you want to be a few years from now, what's important to you and how you prioritize stuff. And then from there, you just start backdating it, right? So I do this 3-year vision each, each quarter, each year I'll look back and, okay, how am I trending? Because you put some aggressive things on there. You don't always hit where you're trying to go, but you, you at least can make tweaks, you can make adjustments. And then if you know, like long-term where you want to be, for me, it makes it easier for me to set my annual, like yearly goals of, okay, hey, I want to, be in this role, this company. I want to make this amount of money. I want to keep building on whatever I did the year before. So that's helped me just give me that long-term guidance, which helps my short-term. And then you just keep chopping it up from there. It's like you got your, your yearly goal, then you go to quarter, then you go monthly, and then eventually it just turns into, you know, what you're doing daily with, with habits and what have you.

Has it worked?

Uh, for certain categories, yes. For other categories, I, I didn't quite hit where I, I wanted to go, but I think It has helped me because then I know what my priorities are, right? I know what the big things I want to achieve. So it's easier for me to say yes and no to things daily and weekly. Like, if it's not something that hits that sheet, then it's probably not something that I should be prioritizing. It shouldn't even be on my to-do list, or I should delegate it or just completely remove it. So I think it helps me prioritize for sure, and it helps me build the right habits daily. Weekly to get there. But I've been wrong on stuff. I've had to like go back and be like, okay, maybe this wasn't the right direction, or where did I make a mistake here? And then you make adjustments.

So, because what I see a lot is that people do the goals, but then you look at their calendar and it's like, why are you not spending your time on the goals? And I think in sales, when you look at a year, It looks like a blank canvas, and it seems like a long period of time, doesn't it?

For sure.

Until December comes around, and then it's like, where to go? And everyone's panicking. And I think if you're in sales, the time to prepare is before preparation, and really talking with your manager and saying, You know, this is what I'd like to do, because everyone thinks their manager can read their mind. And if you're good, your manager is going to want to do what's going to make you happy. If you're not good, they're probably not going to care. And the time to do it is before they make the plans, so that, you know, when you get your comp plan, that's not the time to change. That's kind of— that's signing time. It's not starting time or planning time. And I didn't do enough of this in my career because I really just wanted to make money. I didn't care about titles or things. And it's like— and there was always more demand than me. So I would eventually— I'd tell my manager, this is what I'd like to do. I like this type of territory and I like this type of support. And once in a while they'd help you out. But if you don't tell them, all of a sudden, you know, they hire some Goomba who you have to split your territory with. Oh, and by the way, could you train them? Oh, anything else I can do? Why don't you just give me his account number so I can direct deposit my income into his bank account to make you feel better? So, and a lot of people, what do they do? I'll see what territory I get, what comp plan. Well, that's going to be March, maybe April before you see that. And the thing about time that people don't get is you don't get it back, and it doesn't require your participation. It just keeps going whether you show up or not. This is what people get about taking time off. Yeah, time off's great. But the clock doesn't stop.

Very true. I, I like that idea of getting ahead of it. I don't think many people are getting ahead of going into a new year, whatever it may be. I, I tend to really— I want to be like hitting the ground running when January starts, and I already know my plan. I know what I'm going after. Hopefully I've communicated that with my company or my leadership, and you Yeah, you're right. If you don't take ownership of it, if you don't be proactive, somebody else is going to do it for you. Most likely your manager, they'll chop up the territories or whatever it may be. And you need to be strategic too. It's like if you have deals that may or may not be closing in this year versus next year, you need to really understand what's going on there. And then how do you present that in the pipeline? And you have to play politics a little bit too with some of that. But I don't think many people are doing that, probably because they're just scrambling to hit the number in Q4 and they're, they're all stressed out. They're trying to get stuff over the finish line and then they take off A week or two around Christmas, New Year's, which, which makes sense. But I think getting ahead of it, that's something I've been really good at too. So once New Year's hits, I'm already, I know what my plan is. I know what my goals are. I've already had some deep reflection on it and that way I'm, I'm prepared. And I don't know if a lot of people are doing that. The other thing I'll do, uh, speaking on that time stuff, is I'll, I'll reflect on lessons learned. So I try to keep track of everything throughout the year as best I can, just quickly writing a sentence down of Hey, you made this mistake, or this is something you did good. But those, both the good and bad things, like reflecting and thinking through, okay, where did I mess up this deal? Where did I maybe make a career decision that didn't make as much sense? Or you can do that for personal stuff as well. But I think being accountable with yourself and just owning up to it, that's something that it seems like it's a good time towards the end of the year, beginning of the year to reflect on that stuff. For me, it's it's been helpful, and it's not to to beat yourself up. It's just so you can make those adjustments, right? That's why I use that document I mentioned earlier, so I can keep improving, keep making adjustments, keep hopefully not repeating the same mistakes. And but it's painful to go through that, and you have to be honest with yourself. But you're never going to improve going into the following year if you don't make some tweaks because nobody's gonna. There, there's always something you can get better at, especially in sales.

Yeah. And what helped me a lot was about 7, 8 years ago, I started getting these year-at-a-glance wall calendars, and you get to see a year. I'm looking at it right now, and you get to put a little mark, maybe grade yourself every day, some way of consciously viewing where you are And how much time there is left in the year. And also I mark off like, you know, July and August because in my business they're very slow months. And I used to panic that, you know, Tuesday or Wednesday after July 4th because it was just crickets. And you're like, did the economy stop? Well, kind of. Everyone goes on vacation, and it's like instead of tripping yourself up, take those 2 months and do stuff that requires dedicated time. And I think if you're in sales, get that calendar. And do you want to take a vacation? Well, mark it down and plan for it. Don't hope that you're going to have time because What I used to do July and August, I'd panic and I'd skip a vacation. But it's probably the right time to take a vacation is when everyone else is taking a vacation. And then all of a sudden Labor Day comes and you're burnt out and now you want to take a vacation, but it's the end of the quarter. And then October comes, and that's really when managers start planning. And if you're not talking to your manager in October, Plans are being made without your involvement, and they just assume you're going to be happy with it. And what most reps do is they go, oh, I want to protect these accounts, and they'll do that. The problem is you'll get the quota for that. Well, wait a second, I want last year's quota but with these accounts. It doesn't work that way. So you have to set expectations and kind of either manipulate it. Otherwise, what does everybody do? Wonders in Q1, gets pissed off in Q3, starts looking for something else in Q3 or 4, and then didn't find anything better, so I better settle down in Q4, close this year out strong. That's not a That's reactive instead of being proactive.

For sure. I feel like a lot of people might struggle trying to manage their manager. Do you think it— if, if you're— well, I think first off you need to be probably be doing well, because if you're doing, doing well, you're probably going to have a little bit more leverage when talking with your manager. So that's something that I guess you can't just create that. So assuming you're doing pretty well, Because maybe that's intimidating, I guess, for reps to try to have that conversation with their manager and be a little more proactive. Is there any tips you learned along the way as far as how to do that compared to maybe earlier in your career when you weren't doing that?

Well, you think you have to be the top rep to have that type of clout. But let's say you're the bottom rep. Your manager is probably thinking of putting you on a plan or working you out. But you go to them, you go, man, I'm really excited about this opportunity. It's been a tough year. I want your feedback. I think I would do well in this type of territory. They want to fix it. No manager gets jollies out of letting someone go, right? Because now they have to replace you. And if they don't know what's going on in your head— because they can't read your mind either They want it fixed. Work with them. You know, tell them what's— but own it. You know, be vulnerable. You know, I messed up here. I messed up there. I should have done this. You were right about that. They want it on track. And if you have some type of plan that will work, they'd rather rubber stamp something than, you know, pigeonhole you into something that they know isn't going to work. You're not going to be happy. and they're going to end up working you out of the company anyway. I think you're just better off being upfront.

Yeah, I mean, that could save you another year at least. I mean, if you're scrapping a clone, that could save you another year at that company. Maybe you turn it around. It's, it's been done before. And I think you're right that if, if maybe you're not the top performer in that situation, if you're open to feedback, if you're open to improving, you're having those candid conversations, I feel like that goes a long way because you, you need people like that. on your teams. Not everybody's going to be the top performer. I wish that would be the case, but it's just never going to be the case. So those other folks, like if they're, you know, team players, they're helping out, they're, you know, coaching other people, whatever the case is, and being open to feedback. I think that's, that's key because usually it's not going to go well if, if you are blaming the company and everything else for why you're not hitting your numbers. I'm sure there's all those type of reasons, but you have to just own up to it. Like, here's where I think I made a mistake. What do you think? And then just moving on to the next one. And that makes me think too, is based off these years and these goals, sometimes I don't know what the stat is these days, but I feel like it's maybe over half of reps aren't hitting their quotas. I don't know what the most current one is. How much of that do you think is maybe the company's planning and their goals are a little off? off or not correct versus, you know, what's going on with outside factors.

Yeah, you got to understand that the company overassigns quota. So if you take the number of reps and the aggregate of all their quota, that's probably 50 to 100% of what the— more than the company plans on doing. So you're set up to fail economically. And this has been my whole career.

This is awesome. Yeah.

Right. So if the company's number is $10 million, they assign quota for $15 to $20 million, but they don't have $15 to $20 million of marketing resources. That, that comes after you sell something. That's when we do that. So what ends up happening is a lot of times what I call a stalemate, where management's not changing and the rep's not changing. They're both miserable. And they're waiting to see who's going to win this war of attrition. And let me tell you who's going to win: management.

Okay?

So if you're wondering who's going to win, it's not you. Oh, I'll really work hard if I get a right territory or I get a good comp plan. I'm waiting for them to fix that. Well, do they know that? Are they aware of it? Do they say yes or no? Is there a deadline to fix it? And so you're set up not to make your number, which means if you do make your number, you're doing really well. And that's why you don't see people getting canned if they're 80% of their number. And some companies even have club if you're 80% or above. So it's just an income restraint or income management tool. Instead of them not overassigning the quota, let the people really run who are good. Because I always used to say, well, how hard do you think I'm going to work under my number versus over my number? Right? Because that's where the accelerators are. And one year I hit it in June and I had the pedal to the metal for the next 6 months. There wasn't one minute I wasn't thinking about deals. My commission rate tripled. I was there 7:30 at night on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve trying to close the last deal, telling, nope, people at home office, do not go. I've got another deal. Because I was going to get paid 3 times as much on it. So don't you want your reps doing that? Well, this is what happens when you get accountants involved in compensation. They don't think like people, they think like robots. So if you want something to work at the company, you've got to be your own champion internally. You can't just say, well, they should appreciate me. They should be aware of this. Yeah, they should, but they're not. They've got nine other monkeys to deal with, right? And they're trying to keep the best people happy. And believe me, the manager does not want to lose the best rep. So if you're the best rep, you got a lot of leverage. If you're the worst rep, you got a little leverage, not much. But If you don't want to leave, find out how to make it work instead of trying to, you know, outwork the stalemate.

For sure. I mean, that replacing people, whether they're the top reps or somewhere else, that's painful for managers. I mean, how a lot of times they're— that, that's their biggest complaint is they're just constantly training people, ramping up people, trying to get them up and running. And, and that's just not fun. It's basically a full-time job in itself. So they, they want to avoid that at all costs, I would think, unless If there's some, something else behind the scenes. And yeah, it's so funny you say that because I, I feel like the bigger companies, maybe they, they, they definitely don't want people to make over a certain amount typically. And that's why you keep seeing stuff get split and split and split. That may, maybe not always the case, but going back to your, your finance and accounting, how they're, how they're looking at it, and that probably deters people from overperforming and, and going above and beyond to, to your point. The other thing I think with going into a new year is just being open to, you said open to feedback, but also just being open to new ideas and stuff. So if something's not working, okay, hey, what's wrong with my sales process? Do I need to look at a new sales process? Do I need to try something different? Because I think it's a good time to reset a little bit and maybe look at some new avenues, whether that's with your sales process and making some tweaks. Most people probably don't have one. So maybe it's just, hey, get actually uses the process. And then also trying to figure out what's, what's holding you back. I've been big on this. Like, there's usually a few things that hold people back, and you may even be aware of it, but it's, are you actually addressing it and doing something about it? And that's, that's been something for sure that I've tried to focus on is there's a couple things that hold me back. They're not easy things to change. It's stuff that's, you know, probably since I was a little kid. So how do you really address that and attack that because it trickles over into both work and personal. And even just being aware of it, talking about it is one thing, but actually trying to do something about it. So I, it's a good time to reset. I try to look at that stuff. I don't know if everybody else is, but they should be.

Yeah. Because at the end of the day, it's you no matter what. Yeah. You can go to a bad company with a bad manager, but you chose to do that. So you're there. Is someone else successful there? Why? Why are they successful? Of course, it's the territory and whatever, but are you working hard? Are you really working your process, or are you just going with your gut feeling and reacting, being a service clerk? I think, you know, at the end of a year, it's good to look back. Take the deal that, or the biggest deal that wasn't just a bluebird, and reverse engineer it. How long did it take? Why did it go so well versus some of the other deals? And really do the hard analysis instead of just considering it luck. You know, and this is the time of year when You know, the sales experts send out their activity spreadsheet. Don't look at that. That's, that's how to keep you distracted for the whole year. I've never seen a single rep make their number by following that spreadsheet. I haven't. It might work in the door-to-door transactional, but even there, there's better neighborhoods to knock on doors than other neighborhoods. Somebody is always doing it smarter. Follow them, but don't look for the magic bullet. You're the magic bullet. Turn yourself into the magic bullet and own it, because no matter where you go, it's you going there, right? The job doesn't change you. The manager doesn't change you. It might be easier, but it's still you.

There's something to be said about that too, is the, the accountability side. Because if you truly are accountable with yourself for whatever mistakes you made, deals you lost, money you didn't make, it's, it's painful, but it's almost a relief if you stop blaming other people and you just own up to it yourself, right? It sucks you made that mistake, you lost that deal, You went to the wrong company, whatever it is, and then you just learn from it and you keep moving on. You don't dwell on it as much. I feel like if you stop blaming other people and you just blame yourself, then you stop dwelling on the past and you just move on and move forward to get better, improve. But most people, myself included, many times you keep dwelling on things or like, why did I do this? Why did I do that? I shouldn't have went there, blah, blah, blah. And that's just going to drive you crazy because you can't control any of that from the past. So you just have to own up to it. Stop blaming other people and move forward and then, and be real. Like, I, so I love looking at the deals, also doing a time audit. You have the calendar you mentioned, but, you know, just looking back at how many, how much time did you waste on deals that weren't closing or meetings that were just completely worthless? I like, I try to keep track of that type of stuff and it's disturbing how much time you waste every week for sure. So. But that— those are my choices, right? No one forced me to go to those meetings or do that or go to a lunch when I could have stayed at home and done a 20-minute Zoom. All those little things, they, they start adding up. So you have to just own up to it and stop lying to yourself, basically.

Yeah, because if we talk about a year, a year is a unit of time, but we tend to not think of it that way. We tend to think of it as this Wide unit of time where all things are possible. But if you look at your any day and you do that time audit, it's probably 5% of that day generated the results. What you do with the other 95% and what most people—

Scroll on Instagram.

Yeah, they'll do what they want to do. They do what they like to do. That 5% is probably doing what they need or have to do. So shrink the like to do that isn't helping you and expand the have to and learn how to like it. And this is why I, I say there's got to be a driving force in you more important than your feelings. Whether it's money, status, competitiveness, whatever it is. Otherwise, you're going to follow your instincts and your feelings. And this is why a lot of people can't work from home, because managers assume they're working from home, they're going to do what they want to do, not what they have to do. If they're in the office, at least I'm watching them and they can't do a lot of the things they want to do. Because I talk to leaders all the time and, hey, did you look into this? I just don't like doing that. And I'm like, yeah, that's why it's important to do it. It's because no one else is doing that. They sit and they get the status of the deal. That's not the strategy of the deal. And that's the rep telling you something for you to go away. They're not telling you for feedback. They're telling you to shush, go, let me get my work done. You have to dig in, right? How many people listening to this? I bet 1% will go back through their inbox, follow a deal, see what really was the best use of their time, see what was a real waste of time.

1%.

Most people will be like—

Probably less than that.

Most people just tell themselves, I use my time pretty appropriately. Yeah, I don't. You know, at the end of the day, I look at my list. What do you forget to do? Was it the stuff you wanted to do or the stuff you didn't want to do? Our brain is a pleasure-sorting machine. We always seem to find something more interesting to do.

Definitely. And it's an interesting topic because I read a lot of stuff, different books about trying to focus on what you're good at, what you're passionate at, and then does it drive revenue or make you money? If I can focus the majority of my time on something I'm good at, I somewhat enjoy doing it, and then it makes me money or makes the company money, like that's where I want to be most of the time. And there are those examples, but I also think no matter what you're doing, whether you're A sales rep, a manager, or entrepreneur, there's always going to be a certain percent that just sucks, like throughout the day, like the stuff that you just, you have to do it. It's, it's going to drive the needle. It's a revenue-generating activity, whatever it is, but it's not fun. So maybe you get creative. Maybe it's you have a virtual assistant that's helping you with some of the lower-level prospecting. I don't know. I mean, I think you got to get creative with it, but there's always going to be, I guess my question is like, there's always going to be a percent. That just sucks no matter what you're doing. And you have to do it. Like, I, I do my morning routine Monday through Friday. I didn't want to do it today. I, I tried to get myself out of it, but then I forced myself to do it because it's more of a habit now. And I feel better because I did it. But it's, you know, just stuff like that. It's like, it's like doing the hard things on purpose or doing the things that, you know, you have to do. But there's always going to be a percentage of your day and week that comes to that, right?

Yeah. Well, I think People make the mistake thinking that discipline is a characteristic, not an emotion. Because I got into this argument with this guy, it's a characteristic, it's not an emotion. I go, do you have that characteristic? He says, yes. When did you do your taxes this year? And he wouldn't tell me. He goes, well, that's different. Why is it different?

You're disciplined.

You need to get it done. When'd you do it? He wouldn't tell me. I know why he wouldn't tell me. It was April 15th. He's not disciplined. He's disciplined with his habits that he likes to do, that most people don't like to do. So you got to make it a habit. And pretty much everything is exposure therapy, right? You do a little bit, you find out it's not awful, you do a little bit more, It's a little awful, but not that bad. And eventually you start doing it, and then you tell yourself you're disciplined. Even bigger deals, more deals, faster deals. That's what it's all about. Sign up today. Put the excuses away. Yeah, excuses feel good, but they're expensive. Excuse? You know what the excuses are costing you? Tens, 50, maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in lost income.

Really?

Yeah. The difference between where you are today— let's say you're making $150,000, decent, decent income, but you know there's other people in your industry making $300,000, $400,000, $500,000. Well, how are you going to do that? You all think it's just about getting a better job, a better territory, a better manager. They can help. Go do that. Then what happens? It's still you there with those leads trying to close those deals. And do you have the game? Few people do. Everyone thinks they do. Why not prove it? The market tells you what you're worth. Accept it. Now become better. And the way to become better is to improve every day. Really make a daily routine of learning and developing because it's not at the knowledge level. You have to become unconsciously competent at these skills, which takes time, repetition, an emotion. And I show you how to do it, how I did it, how I've taught hundreds of people to do it. But you have to want to, because I can't force you. A lot of people wish I could.

So do I.

But I can't. So sign up today. We'll see you next time.